A different point of view
by Marteczka
Summary: The four brothers are back in town to avenge their mother's death but they are going to get so much more
1. Chapter 1

**Based on: **Four Brothers

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters that appear both in the movie and the story. Also, the main plot and some dialogs and descriptions are based on the movie, which script I did not write.

**Chapter 1**

Bobby Mercer hasn't been in this part of Detroit for years. Now he was driving down the familiar streets covered with snow, remembering every single curb and corner. He supposed some people would remember him from the old times but even if they did, they turned their heads away from him as if to ignore him. He was also guessing that they all thought he got out for good behavior and a smirk appeared on his face. Well, they surely weren't THAT wrong…

Bobby was the black sheep of the family or, considering that all of his brothers have had some problems with law, the person who should not show his face over here.

His brother Angel was an ex-hustler, a soldier and people were usually smart enough not to mess around with him. Jack, the youngest, did not look like trouble at all with his baby face, but as an aspiring and not successful rock star he was always ready to pick up a fight. After all, he was a Mercer. And then there was Jeremiah, the only one that actually turned out to be a good one, got married and started a family.

Bobby didn't know how, but somehow all of them fit together and managed to live like a family for a while, even though they were not blood related. People around were always wondering, why a woman like Evelyn Mercer would ever rise four total bastards. The truth was, she helped hundreds of kids to get out of foster-care houses into permanent homes and throughout years she came across only four lost causes that nobody wanted to take in. So she did. And was only thanks to her that these kids were saints comparing to what they would've been.

Shame they were meeting now for their mom's funeral.

***

Lizzie had finally an afternoon off and the whole house for herself only, as her mom and her long-time boyfriend went out. She loved times like this, feeling safe and warm inside on a freezing winter day. She was about to start cooking when she heard a loud knocking on the door and when she opened it she froze.

"Jack?" she said after a brief moment of silence and amazement.

She couldn't believe her eyes. After three long years he finally was there, standing in front of her.

Thousands of thoughts stormed through her head. She imagined this moment so many times and now she didn't know whether to smile or shout at him.

"Hi Liz"

He was as charming as ever. His hair got a little longer and now he was wearing it in a more stylish way but it surely suited his boyish face and those blues eyes she used to stare at for hours. He was still tall and slim, just as he used to be. But she could see he got older from the way he looked at her. Something changed in him, his eyes weren't soft anymore and they were missing something.

"You look great" he broke the uncomfortable silence. He imagined this scene numerous times as well but it wasn't going he planned it.

He hated reunions.

"You too"

Jack Mercer was back in Detroit. Of course, considering the situation she expected him to come but she wasn't really ready for him to show up in her doorway after what happened between them last time they saw each other and all those awful things they said. You never forget that from the person you supposedly love.

"You wanna come in?" she asked but he shook his head.

"Nah, thanks, I was just passing by"

Yeah, right, she thought. As if going ten blocks extra was ever on your way.

"I've heard what happened to your mum, I'm sorry" she knew all this must have hurt him badly; people don't change that much in three years.

"Yeah, it's pretty awful. I was wondering if you're coming to the funeral" she thought he looked rather nervous.

"Yes, of course I am; Evelyn was a really extraordinary lady and we're all gonna miss her" they all already did.

"Great, thanks, I'm sure she would appreciate it. So, I guess, see you then" he said and walked down the icy stair.

She closed the door but could not move or think clearly for a while.

***

There were dozens of people at the funeral standing around the casket bidding farewell to Evelyn Mercer, a woman who helped hundreds but truly loved those four that nobody else would. And these four men were standing in silence, a part of their soul missing. Four man that would rather die than confess to anybody how much they missed her but they knew how hard this blow was about to impact them.

After the ceremony everybody left to Jerry's house but Jack stayed behind, looking at the fresh pile of soil covered with flowers. He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You OK?" he felt better when he heard Lizzie's voice.

"You know what's the worst part of all this?" he kept staring into emptiness "We never had a proper goodbye, you know? We all left three years ago without telling her how much she meant to us" he couldn't say anything else.

"Don't worry, Jack. She knew" she wanted to add something to comfort him but she just kept on standing there with him. She knew that her words were enough for him and somehow it was going to get better soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It felt awkward for them to go back to the big house where they all grew up together. In the past they didn't feel like coming back here because of what they had done, now because they didn't know what to do next. The house was standing empty and uninviting, there were no lights on and when they opened the door, the familiar smell of cooking did not hit them. They were standing in the hall in silence looking around and feeling a wave of nostalgia washing over them. Everything looked exactly the same as the day they all left, and they half expected their mum to appear in the doorway wearing an apron and giving them this famous smile of hers that could make your day bright.

But she didn't.

Instead, they all moved reluctantly, trying to act normal. Jack took his old room and was now lying on his bed, strumming his guitar and remembering the old times and moments that took place there, both happy and sad. This place still felt like his home even though he had been trying not to think about it for a long time.

He looked up when Bobby entered his room and with a sigh sat on the floor, laying his back on the side of the bed.

"You been crying in here, you little fairy?" he asked playfully blinking some odd tears away.

Jack put away his guitar and grabbed a box of cigarettes.

"Leave it alone, man" he said and lit up one.

"Still making a lot of racket on that freaking thing?" somehow Bobby could not stop blinking but focused on sustaining his voice.

"Yeah, still making a lot of racket" Jack grinned.

"Too weird in Mom's room?" he asked with a cunning smile on his face but knew exactly how his big brother felt.

"Oh, man. Way too weird" Bobby closed his eyes trying to forget the past couple of days but the reality was coming back to him with a double force.

"It's crazy. I mean, everything's exactly the same"

But it Jack thought it wasn't. Maybe the place looked as if time had stopped in here but people in it were not the old Mercer boys that the neighborhood once knew. Those boys were long gone and forgotten.

Well, one thing didn't change, Bobby thought.

Jack still smoked.

***

"I don't give a damn what you thought!" Marie was shouting at her boyfriend and started to throw things at him.

It was a circle of hell for Liz to listen to her mom and her almost-stepdad fight. She could never understand why Marie had stayed with this guy for over 10 years. It was one of those toxic relationships and Lizzie swore to herself that she's never gonna end up with an abusive guy that would cheat on her with anything that moves. At least she would have guts to move out and never see him again. But somehow, every morning after one of those fights she found her mum making blueberry pancakes for him until another screaming session.

This time it has been going on for over an hour and she was sick of listening to them calling each other names. She grabbed a cigarette and left the house slamming the front doors as hard as she could.

She leaned on the wooden fence and puffed out a white cloud of smoke that disappeared instantly in the dim light of the street lamp. She felt so pathetic still living with her mother at the age of 21 but after renting an apartment right after graduating from high school and losing her job one year later, she couldn't afford anything better at the time; and so she was back there, listening to Stan complaining about undercooked food or unwashed clothes. At last he didn't start on her any more as he did with her friends.

She thought she hated this place more than anything when she looked at the dark figures behind the curtains and realized her mom was getting to the silverware cabinet.

Maybe this will make him think next time he brings an unwanted friend to the house, she thought.

She was about to breath out another portion of smoke when she heard a voice on her right in the darkness.

"Some things never change, do they?"

She couldn't see him in the darkness but she would recognize his voice everywhere.

"Nope. I still smoke and they're sill ready to rip each other's throats apart" she said with a sigh. She missed those times when she was sad and he would comfort her, how he always knew how to say the right thing to make her feel better. There was a time when he was the person who knew her better than she did.

But those times ended the moment he left Detroit three years ago.

"You wanna go for a walk?" he asked shoving his hands in his pockets as it started to snow.

She did.

***

"Wow, I haven't been here for years" they were walking down the park alley looking at the fragile white dust falling from the sky. It must have been after midnight but neither of them wanted to go back home and they both had a deep need to act as if nothing had changed and they were still high school kids not even worrying if they had homework.

They stopped by the empty fountain that brought old memories back.

"This is it" Jack looked around, remembering that particular moment that brought them there. It was more or less the same time of the year, close to Thanksgiving, and it was snowing, too.

"This is where we had our first kiss" she almost whispered. Even the forked tree was still there, covered with the white fluff. It was the people, who have changed.

"Liz…" he started but she cut in.

"Jack, can I say something?" she wasn't nervous because she hadn't actually planned to say it but she knew she needed to.

"Last time we saw each other we both said things we didn't really mean and even though I believe it hurt us both pretty deep, why don't we just call it past and start a new future? I'm pretty sure we both need it right now" she looked at him expectantly and prayed he would say yes.

He looked at her for a brief moment before slowly nodding and entwining her arm with his.

They both hoped it wasn't too late to start a new future.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

She was sitting in the living room watching Bobby arguing about some girl Angel brought home last night and wanted to live with them. She was well accustomed with this kind of situation but at least this particular one was pretty amusing; while the two kept shouting at each other, the girl, whose name Liz didn't catch, started to yell something in Spanish and the overall chaos was filled with Jerry's laughter.

She got up and decided to look for Jack but she didn't have to look far; he was in the kitchen, bent over the oven and watering the Thanksgiving turkey he was roasting. She was grateful the Mercers invited her over for the Thanksgiving dinner. She could not imagine what it would look like at her own place; or rather she could, with her mum and Stan either not talking to each other or reaching the point of reconciliation which would only make her sick.

She was standing in the doorway leaning on the frame and looking at Jack. She was touched that after all these guys have been through, they were still trying to keep it together and act like a normal family; she was sure their mum would like it. Besides, it was incredibly funny to see the big and bad Jack to struggle with a turkey and wear red hot pads that kindda matched his black T-shirt with skulls on it. She also took a deep breath while taking a closer look at his bent figure. He had sure changed during the past three years. Last time she saw him he was still a teenager, now he was a man. She looked at his sexy muscled arms and noticed a couple of new tattoos. She also liked the silver rings he was wearing on his left thumb and pointing finger that gave him a more dangerous look. He was extremely good looking and it took a lot of strong will of hers to stay in the doorway.

He looked up when he sensed somebody looking at him and smiled when he saw her.

"I would have thought you should be doing this, I usually even burn scrambled eggs"

"You seem to be doing fine" she made one step closer and started to play with a hem of a towel lying on the counter.

"Thanks for taking me in" she smiled bitterly "I'm glad I can finally have a normal Thanksgiving"

"As normal as it gets" he grinned at her "Besides, you're practically family. It wouldn't be the same without you" he got up and started to pick up different lids and stir something in the pots.

"Let me do it. At least I can be of some use"

He nodded and after handing her the red pads, he lit up another cigarette.

***

Jerry and Angel were in the middle of a wrestling embrace on the floor when she entered the room carrying a few plates and placed them on the table.

"Come on, boys, let's eat. Jack, bring out that bird"

They all formed a circle around the table and while holding each other's hands Bobby started to pray out loud.

"Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior…"

She was glad they were sticking with the old traditions and not missing a thing. It looked as if for a minute they forgot what had happened and were again four little boys that were just trying to find their own place in this hostile world.

It felt pretty awkward when they started to eat. They were trying to enjoy the food but the empty chair was towering over the table so that none of them could forget or even stop looking at it. Lizzie looked at each of them separately and their faces changed instantly as if they could see something at the empty space that she could not.

And then she saw it.

Evelyn was sitting in her old seat looking at her with those motherly blue eyes of hers. She was simply looking at her and sending her a message just as she did with the other boys.

"Take care of him, Elizabeth" she seemed to say "He still needs saving"

Liz gently nodded. She was going to be there for him and this time she wasn't ready to let him go.

***

The next day they got a phone call from Evelyn's bank that they can come and pick up her safety-deposit box. Liz thought it to be a rather personal matter but Jack insisted on her going so she finally gave up.

They went to the Detroit skyscraper part of the city and found the right office on the top floor of one of them. The guy behind the desk told them what an impression their mum made on him when he met her the one time she came by but Liz could tell he was only doing his job and he had probably said the same sentence to every single person who got a phone call from him. On the other hand, she knew the Mercers were extremely nervous when he finally put a rather small grey metal box on the table in front of them, Evelyn's most valuable possessions.

They all looked at it in silence and it was Bobby who reached for it and slowly opened it. After a moment he passed a small bundle to Jack and Jerry.

"Birth certificate and adoption papers" Jack whispered and kept staring at it.

She could see "Lansing, Michigan" written with big letters on the yellowish paper that faded with time.

"My mom was 16?" Jeremiah asked surprised and turned over the page.

"I got any papers in there?" Angel asked while looking over Bobby's shoulder.

"No" Bobby shook his head.

"You got any papers in there?"

"No"

They both looked at the box in silence.

But Liz kept staring at Jack. He got pale while reading the rest of the documents and even though she didn't know what was in them, she thought that maybe sometimes it's better not to know your past at all rather than learn it when it's too late to fix it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Liz was standing on the sidewalk facing the huge deserted building that seemed to be a block long. It was a rather miserable and gloomy place; with grey paint covered with graffiti and hollow windows it didn't look inviting at all. There was crap all over the place, paper and plastic sheets lying on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. She was glad she didn't have to go inside and felt a pang of guilt when thinking why she was there. This was Jerry's dream. He's been talking about this place for a while now and she finally got to see it.

He somehow bought it and planned to renovate it. There was a lot of space in there and according to Jeremiah, it was a perfect place to invest some money and build luxury lofts. He has been even talking about some lavish offices and storefronts with stained-glass windows but she couldn't imagine no urban sophistication in the middle of this part of Detroit.

She was just wondering how he was going to get all this money to pay for this. He told her once it was all about the government redevelopment loan, which was easy to qualify with low interest rates.

She was only hoping that this time he wasn't getting into any kind of trouble.

***

"You're kidding me, right?" she was shouting to the phone and pressing it so hard to her ear that she was afraid it was going to burst any moment but she had to somehow release her anger.

"Shit, Jack. You're just gonna burst into some gang shithole because some Johnny G heard something?" she couldn't believe how stupid they were.

"Liz, it's about our mom. They killed her with cold blood. We have to do something" his voice sounded firm in the receiver.

"You listen to me, Jack. Ain't no good gonna come from this. Let the police do their damn job" she noticed that some people looked with interest at her while passing her by but she couldn't lower her voice any more.

"Stop with the police" she could tell he was getting impatient "Half the cops in this town are crooked, you think the other half give two shits about another liquor-store holdup?"

"What about this Green guy, he's on our side this time" she wasn't going to give up that easily and let him get killed.

"Come on, Liz. She was the only woman that ever gave a damn. The least we can do is go bang on a few doors and see what happens. We owe her that much"

"Bang on a few doors?! Jack, I know you and your brothers. There will be no banging on the doors, you're gonna blow the freaking place out!" she realized she was getting too loud and bringing too much attention to her.

"So what" she hissed to the phone "Y'all just gonna shoot up the whole town because y'all mad?"

"We can't all be saints, Lizzie" he paused for a moment "Besides, Jerry is not going, I think he's really trying to stay out of trouble now, you know" this didn't make her feel better at all.

"I gotta go. Just wanted you to know what's going on. I'll call you when it's over"

"Yeah, OK" she mumbled "Jack?"

"Yeah?" she could hear he hesitated.

"Please be careful"

"I will" he said and turned his phone off but she kept standing on the sidewalk with the phone by her cheek listening to the beeping sound in the receiver.

***

She was too nervous to stay home so she was at the Mercer's with Angel's girl waiting for them to come back. It was well after midnight when they came home and she was relieved that none of them looked bruised.

There were now sitting in the big room putting the facts together and analyzing the situation.

"I thought the police got witnesses" she was pretty confused by the whole situation.

"Apparently it was all counterfeit" Bobby was staring somewhere and she could tell he was deep in thought "Nobody was playing basketball when this went down, that's why the cops didn't arrest anybody"

"How do you know that?" it still sounded fishy to her.

"The shooting took place at 11 p.m."

"So what?" she asked.

"They turn the court lights at 10" he looked straight at her and this time he didn't look like the good old Bobby she knew. Right now he looked like a cold murderer with hatred in eyes and no emotion on his pale stone-like face.

He knew that they came across something big and he was going to do anything to take revenge for their mother's death.

"It was a questionable kill" he said after a while.

"What makes you think that?" Jack finally looked up without glancing at her.

"Sometimes pros will cover up their shots with another crime like a burglary or something. Then pay a witness to throw the cops on to the wrong suspect" even his voice was changed, cold and cutting the silence like a sharp blade of a razor.

"But why anybody wanna kill the sweetest woman in the goddamn world?" Jack was the very opposite, his whole being filled with conflicting emotions.

"I don't know, Jackie. I don't know"

***

"Bobby!" she called him when he already got to the top of the stairs but this certainly did not lower her spirit.

"Don't get him involved in this one, please" she looked at him pleading.

"Sorry, Liz. He's already a part of this. Besides, he's an adult. I can't tell him what to do" from his tone she didn't think he would try anyways.

"You're gonna get him killed" she lowered her voice so that only Bobby could hear her "He's still only a kid"

"Just as you are, which doesn't make me think that you even understand what's going on right now" he looked at her meaningfully.

"Go home, Liz" he sighted "Go home before it gets any more dangerous and it would be damn smart of you if you stay away until it quiets down" and with these words he turned around to disappear behind the doors.

But Liz only wished she could stay away.

Just as Jack, she was already a part of this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

She didn't really feel like going home. Overwhelmed but this whole situation, she went to the room that she knew so well, opened Jack's window and sat on the small piece of roof beneath it, where they used to hide as kids. He found her deep in thoughts and sat cross-legged by her side, both looking at the starry sky above them.

"Man, I haven't been here for ages" he said and lit up a cigarette. She liked the way the faint glow of the fire danced on his face and thought that for the first time in a very long time he looked very serious sitting there, breathing out the smoke and staring into emptiness.

"Yeah, I used to love to come here" she sighed when old memories came to her unexpectedly "Nobody could ever find us and it was here where once in a while I felt home"

"Nobody except for Bobby" Jack laughed and she liked it, too "Somehow, he always knew where to find us"

"Well, it wasn't too hard with me" she raised her eyebrow mockingly "I was usually with you and Bobby always had an eye on you"

"He still does" Jack looked at the fag stuck between his fingers and tossed it towards the roof edge.

They were sitting in silence for a while when Jack broke it.

"Do you ever think about me?" he asked nonchalantly without looking at her but she knew him well and she knew that her answer would mean a lot to him.

"Yes, I do. And I actually do it more often than I would want to" she hated how ironic her life was. For three years she hated him but would give anything to spend another minute in his arms. Now, when he was sitting with his arms touching hers and their faces inches apart, she couldn't shout at him or hate him anymore but she knew they were definitely over or at least she hoped so.

"You were the first guy I ever kissed and girls remember things like that"

How lonely and pathetic she felt. For three years the only thing she could think of was how much she was hurting after he had left and now she was back to her old part of best friend as if everything between them was perfect and he never left her brokenhearted and drowning in tears.

"And now look at you" she said with a sigh "You're a rock star or very soon you will be. You smoke, you have tattoos and" she hesitated for a moment " look at you. You're not a schoolboy anymore. Now you're a man. You've grown up, Jack. Maybe it's time for me to grow up, too"

She was so impressed with what she just said that she was totally unprepared when he suddenly leaned towards her and kissed her passionately.

Something cracked inside her and she thought it might have been her heart when she realized how silly and naïve she was. He was playing her the way he wanted. He left her once already without looking back and now when he was back, she was giving up the minute he simply kissed her.

Yes, she still loved him and would do anything to save him but even though Jack looked like a man, inside he hadn't changed at all.

And somebody had to tell him this.

Without thinking, she broke the kiss and looked straight at him.

But no words came out.

Unfamiliar emotions took over her. She wanted to shout and scream. She wanted him to know that he destroyed her heart so that she will never be able to love anybody else. She wanted him to understand that for a long time she was such an emotional wreck that her hysterical laughter could always turn into tears. For God's sake, she started dating only one year ago and under the condition that the guy looked nothing like Jack Mercer!

But she couldn't say any of this so instead she got up without a word and quickly stepped under the window into the room and disappeared behind the doors.

***

She ran out of the house and stopped on the sidewalk to catch her breath and clear her head. Her life was getting confusing again just when she thought she got it back.

Argh! Damn all the mankind, their stupidity, selfishness and lack of responsibility! The world would be in such a harmony without them!

She was too busy with her anger that she didn't see the car approaching on her left and the window slowly rolling down. It was then she saw a fire gun aimed at the Mercer's house not ten feet away from her and the whole scene started to slow down in front of her eyes and she felt as if she wasn't in her own body. She couldn't stand the noise of the shots and the sound of broken glass but she was too scared to move.

For the rest of her life she believed that she would have surely died if it wasn't for Jack who suddenly appeared behind her, enfolded her with his arms, pinned her to the ground and shielded her with his body from the shuttered glass and flying bullets.

It was only when the car left and the rest of the Mercers where in front of their house holding guns in their hands, when he thought it to be safe and helped her to her feet but she shook him off.

"So what now, you saved my life so you're the big hero and everything's gonna be OK?! Well, guess what, it's not!" she shouted into his face and didn't let him to interrupt her this time.

"You thought you were gonna kiss me and I would just forget how you treated me?!" she was just getting started "You left without a word! For three years no letter, no call, not even a note that you're still alive! For three years I've been trying to form a normal healthy relationship but I freaking can't!" she noticed people coming out of their houses to check out the shooting noise and now they saw her having a fit like a lunatic but she didn't care "I loved you, Jack! You were the love of my life and you fucked everything up just as you do it with everything!" she was done and finally felt relieved. She was free.

But she didn't expect him to say anything back.

"Liz, I only left because you wanted me to! As far as I remember, that day you called me an asshole and told me that you didn't want to ever see me again! I was lucky you didn't start to chuck things at me" his voice sounded hurt and she didn't feel as confident as a moment ago.

"What?! We had a fight so I was mad at you but you know best that people say many things in anger that they regret later. Did you really think I would want you to leave just like that?" she started to calm down and suddenly it hit her that during these three years she never thought of his side. She was besotted with her own pain that she never even considered that maybe she hurt him too and these three years he was in hell, as well.

Now it was time.

She looked at him softly.

"Jack, I'm sorry. I've been so wrong" he knew it cost her dearly to say that "I always thought you left because you were some selfish bastard without feelings. But you left because I was an idiot without brain" she chuckled and saw a subtle smile appearing on his lips.

"Nah, you're not an idiot. You've been just… not thinking rationally. That's all" his words actually made her feel better.

"But I do understand that you need some space and time to mend slowly while I have to work hard to win your trust back" he held his hand towards him and she shook it.

"Friends again?" he asked shyly.

"Yeah, we are"

She was glad they explained everything to each and the whole sticky situation was over.

"You know what that means, right?" Bobby walked down the stairs and faced them.

"Now they know that you're with us and there will be more situations like that but this time they may be aimed against you" he looked at her "You have to stay close to us, it would be best if you move in. It's the only way you can be safe right now" she was surprised with his offer but knew he was right and didn't dare to argue.

"You can stay in my room" Jack volunteered and quickly added "I'm gonna stay on the couch in the living room"

She was about to enter the house when she heard Angel barking "What are you looking at?" at some guy staring behind her.

And that's when she realized that for the first time in her life she was finally a part of a family that wanted her and cared about her.

And would never let anybody hurt her.


	6. Chapter 6

I just wanted to thank all the people reading the story. Your comments encourage me to write new chapters and it's a nice thought that your work is not wasted.

Thank you

**Chapter 6 **

They've been waiting for Jerry for almost half an hour and when he finally came driving his new white Volvo, he walked to them impatiently as if he really didn't want to be there.

It wasn't the nicest part of the city. The straight row of poor looking houses gave it a dull and unpleasant feeling but for the boys it was more of a home than for anyone else in the area.

Probably because they've seen so much worse.

Liz was standing by Jack, Bobby and Angel, leaning on Bobby's car. She came along as they all decided that she was already a part of this and for her safety she should be as close to them as possible.

But she didn't mind. She had always enjoyed their company and she was grateful they didn't leave her to deal with this huge mess all by herself.

They were all waiting for Jerry in silence and waiting for him to say something. Bobby didn't even look at him but she liked the way Jack was staring at him mockingly with a grin on his face. His body language was saying one thing.

Trouble.

They didn't know why but their brother looked extremely uncomfortable to be there. Liz had an impression that he thought they were making a fuss of nothing and only wanted to go back to his life. She was also wondering why he would think that. After all, it was about their mum that they all loved so much, even if none of them ever said it aloud. She knew they cared for her more than anyone else in this world.

"All right, I'm here" Jeremiah said trying to figure out what he was doing there "What?"

"Last night we found it wasn't random" Angel was the first to talk to him.

But Jerry's reaction only made Liz mad. He looked at them as if they were crazy and almost laughed at them.

"The witness was paid and the whole gang story was some bullshit" Angel continued unmoved but everything was boiling inside him and right now he only wanted to beat the shit out of his brother and wipe this smirk off his face.

And so did Liz. What the hell is wrong with him, she thought.

"Are you serious, man? Come on now" Jerry looked after Bobby, who turned around and walked to an older man walking down the sidewalk.

Liz shivered when she saw his face. She's never seen him like that. He looked as if he had already planned what their next move but his face also told her something else.

He was already regretting that.

"There's something going on here, Jerry. Too many coincidences and not enough information. We should at least check it out" she was trying to convince him it wasn't all in their heads but she knew it didn't work.

The old man walked to the front door of the shop and was about to unlock it when he looked up and noticed them. A sudden grimace of fear passed his face and Liz realized how terrifying they must look.

"Can I help you, gentleman?" he asked slowly with a thick eastern accent.

"Yeah, if we could just have a moment of your time, sir" Jack felt his fear too and spoke the most polite way he could. Liz was actually surprised he could do that and made a step forward to stand right next to him "Evelyn Mercer was our mother".

Jack's voice seemed steady but he could never mislead her. She noticed when it trembled for a split of a second and was glad that she could be there for him. The whole time he was acting as a tough and rough guy but she knew how fragile he was inside, how many times somebody hurt him and how much he needed her to support him.

The shop owner nodded and let them inside.

***

They were surrounding the small black and white screen and staring at it intensely. On it, they could see their mother during the robbery just before her death. She was standing innocently in a corner trying to choose the best turkey for her boys for Thanksgiving even though they hadn't been home for three years and she was cooking it every year to finally eat it with needy people and her neighbors.

Bobby felt a strong pang of guilt and pain slashing through him. If it wasn't for her death, they wouldn't come home this time either.

Liz's eyes filled with tears and she felt Jack becoming very tense by her side. When she looked at him, she saw his face twisted in agony and fighting with the overwhelming sorrow. He looked like a little boy he was once when she met him for the first time. His whole rock star image was gone and it was replaced by a soul that lost something nobody could ever bring back to it.

She touched his hand lightly to let him know that he wasn't alone in this and he didn't yank it back like a wounded animal but laced his fingers with hers and simply kept staring at the screen.

That's when they all saw Evelyn trying to hide behind the shelves and one of the men walking up to her, his face covered with a piece of black cloth.

"This doesn't add up" Bobby whispered.

Jerry breathed heavily and Jack clenched his other hand in a tight fist and hid his face behind it while staring at the screen.

"He's already got the money" Bobby added after a short moment.

Now they were all looking at one of the men aiming his gun at the older woman with nowhere to run, her faced firmly locked at her murderer's face.

Angel was standing like a statue without moving and Liz could see Jack digging his nails deep into his palms.

A thin trickle of blood ran down his fingers.

Bobby was just looking at the screen but he started to blink intensely too to hide his tears that he felt coming.

Nobody said anything.

That's when the man with the gun started to shoot at the woman and every each of them suddenly could not watch any more.

Liz was surprised when Jack turned around out of the blue and pulled her tightly to his muscled body. A wave of warmth came over her and her knees bent but he didn't let her fall. It was him supporting her but in a desperate need of kindness, understanding and love. It took her a minute to move and put her arms protectively around his neck.

The other three boys had tears in their eyes as well as they saw their innocent mother being brutally shot with no mercy.

Suddenly, Bobby looked at the shop keeper, his face bitter and filled with passion and hatred.

"Supposedly, a witness told police this was a gang shooting. You know anything about that?"

They were all waiting for the man to talk but Liz was standing with Jack aside trying to comfort him and not letting his hand go.

"The police talked for a long time with one man. One man more than the others. He comes in for Gatorade after the games. Big guy. Always wears sweats, never a jacket. Even with snow or rain. He has a dog and an Afro like… Ben Wallace, the basketball player" they knew the guy was trying to help them as hard as he could.

"Okay" Angel said nodding, this time his face stone-like and jaw firmly locked.

"Is he on the courts a lot?" Bobby did not let it go.

"On the courts or at the gym" was the answer.

This was enough for them.

They all left the shop and were now walking down the street, every each of them with his heart broken. Four dangerous men that nobody would ever mess around with.

Liz was walking with them and thought they must have looked terrifying to all the passer-bys.

"That wasn't no gang shooting, that was an execution. They set Mom up. They set her up" Bobby hissed through his teeth "Come on"

Four men that were ready to do horrible things to avenge their mother's brutal death. And what Bobby had decided a while ago, now all the boys had in their minds. They were all ready to die for the cause.

And that's what Liz feared most.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Jack, I'm sorry" she whispered in the darkness half asleep.

It was late at night and she was in Jack's room trying to get some rest while he was lying on the floor. She was pretty surprised he preferred the hard floor from the nice and comfy sofa downstairs but part of her was grateful he came, she didn't feel like being alone and she knew he needed her company as well.

"They're going to pay for this, I'm gonna make sure of that" he wasn't asleep at all so he was staring at the dark ceiling covered with moving shadows, his eyes wide open but her presence was calming him down and she was the only reason he wasn't out there in the streets getting some justice on his own.

She didn't know what to say. She still knew him well. She understood how hurt inside he was and how much revenge means to him.

And she only wanted it to pass.

"You know, when you left that night I hoped you would come back saying you were sorry and I was so ready to forgive you even though I see now it wasn't all your fault. I even imagined myself looking down at you kneeling and begging me to take you back. But well, you didn't" she didn't know why she said that but she preferred a moment of sincerity than the awkward and electrifying silence filling the already stuffy room.

"After that I always thought that maybe if I didn't make you leave none of you would" she continued when he didn't say anything. She wasn't even sure if he heard her.

"It wasn't your fault" she finally heard from behind the bed "They would have left anyways; they were just waiting for the right opportunity to get out of here"

"Yeah, I guess" she sighted. She felt sorry for them but today when she finally saw how strong and dangerous they were, she instantly knew that they could take care of themselves.

"Goodnight, Jack" she said quietly but when he answered, he realized she was fast asleep.

***

It was early afternoon the next day and they were all getting ready to leave when Jack stopped her in the hallway.

"Here, take this, you know how to use it" he put something in her hand.

She almost jumped when the cold metal touched her skin; she wasn't ready for that.

"Jack, you know I'm not gonna use it; I can't even think of killing somebody" the mere thought of using a gun made her sick.

"I know" he nodded "but there can be a situation where it's you or them. And I don't I have to tell you I'd prefer it to be you" he looked at her and when their gazes locked, she felt a familiar and ecstatic shiver running through her body. If it was up to her, she would never move but suddenly Bobby appeared in the doorway.

"Guys, what're you doing in there? Making out? I'm not gonna wait for y'all forever"

***

They came in through the main door and elbowed their way through the crowd to get to the playfield. The game was very heated and there were dozens of people sitting on the benches or standing on them, shouting and screaming at the players.

"You guys ready?" Bobby asked and looked around to see if he recognized the man described by the shopkeeper.

"What's the plan, Bobby?" Liz saw doubt on Jeremiah's face and she suddenly felt that this whole action was pointless. There was no plan. They were looking for one man in this crowd; a needle in a haystack.

"We're winging it, Jerry" Bobby looked at him as if this was the most obvious thing to do.

"We always wing it" Jerry said reproachfully.

"We're gonna get killed" Jack said behind Bobby's back and Liz almost burst out with laughter. She did agree that they didn't have high chances to survive this, but the way Jack was looking at them made her smile. He looked so innocent, as if he hadn't said anything when Bobby looked at him.  
"What you mean "we", white boy?" Angel asked him daringly.

"You ready?" Bobby looked at him and Liz thought that only the two of them looked "ready", whatever it meant. Jack was still standing beside her in the back and Jerry looked very uncomfortable and out of place, which was pretty usual for him for the last couple of days.

But ready for what?, she thought.

She didn't have to wait long to realize what he meant. In a very confident manner, Bobby walked onto the field among the players and interrupted the game. Jerry looked after him with amazement but it was too late to stop his brother.

How subtle, Liz thought, just as they had planned.

"Here we go" Jack murmured and Liz though she heard a note of embarrassment in his voice.

"What an idiot" she shook her head and waited for what was to come.

"Excuse me!" Bobby shouted to the crowd when he heard the buzzer going off. All the players started to gather around him, not knowing what was going on.

The referee, apparently pissed off, was walking towards him but Bobby was so ready to take him.

"I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but you better get the hell out of here, friend" he almost ripped Bobby's throat.

"I'd love to, _friend_, but I can't" Bobby looked at him brazenly and took the ball out of the guy's hands.

"Yeah! I got the rock now!" he shouted again and started to bounce the ball "I got this motherfucker now!" Liz thought he made an impression of some insane guy just looking for trouble when some of the players got dangerously close to him.

"What, bitch?" one of them tried to hit him but he was way too slow to face a Mercer and Bobby was just waiting for it. He hit the guy in the face with the ball so that hi attacker immediately fell on the floor.

Now people knew he wasn't joking.

Liz didn't know where Angel went, but she was standing with Jack and Jerry, watching the show and trying to forget that this man in the middle of the field was with them. She didn't think it could get any worse but it could.

And it did.

The players started to pull on his clothes when Jerry finally moved to help him but Bobby did not need anybody's help. With the blink of an eye, he took a gun out of his pocket and everybody jumped away from him.

"No need to grab me!" Bobby was aiming around him with the gun when Jerry reached him and tried to calm him down.

"This will only take a second. Now shut up and listen!" he continued.

"Get off the floor!" Liz could her from the crowd but Bobby didn't give up.

He never did.

"My name is Bobby Mercer. And some of you probably knew my mother. And some of you probably know she was shot about a week ago across the street. Sixty-two years old, murdered in cold blood!" he was shouting even louder when Jerry was making an idiot out of himself as well and tried to stop him.

"Think about it, Bobby, think. Think!" he was unsuccessfully trying to talk louder than him.

"I'm looking for the witness. Ballplayer, big guy, supposedly never wears a coat. Dog lover, ring any bells?" Bobby was standing with his gun, Jerry right behind him.

"You tell me where I can find the guy and you can finish the game! All we wanna do is talk to the guy" somehow Liz didn't really believe that.

That's when a sudden move brought Jack's attention and he started to follow the guy that had just left.

Liz didn't know what to do so she followed them both.


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks for the comments, guys, y'all are great!

**Chapter 8**

"Hey, kid!" Jack called after the guy while chasing him "No running in the halls!"

How appropriate, Liz thought and closed the door behind her.

Apparently, despite of playing basketball, the guy was much slower than Jack and Liz only saw him bouncing off the glass door leading outside and Jack grabbing him from behind.

"Get off me, man!" he was shouting and tussling but Liz knew that nothing could get out of Jack's steel grasp.

She also noticed how ambiguously it sounded, at least in her head.

"Why you running?" Jack asked innocently when Angel appeared in the doorway looking both mad and dangerous, as if he was only waiting to make a bloody pulp out of the guy.

"Man, I don't know nothing! What do you want from me?!" the guy howled desperately when Angel came even closer to him.

"Here's the deal" Jack tried a nicer tone of voice "We ask questions, you answer them"

"You got something to tell me youngster?" Angel growled at him when Jack went to get Bobby and Jerry out of the field.

From the hallway Liz could hear Bobby still shouting to the people.

"I'm looking for who killed my mother!" and Liz guessed that's when he noticed Jack and decided it was time to go.

"I appreciate your help very much. You've all been upstanding citizens! Enjoy the rest of the game"

Crazy as hell, Liz thought, this guy knew when to be dramatic.

The four brothers surrounded the guy like a hounded animal and she noticed how intimidating they looked but she didn't join them. It wasn't her fight, she preferred to stay in the back and just observe them.

"Bobby, meet Keenon. Keenon, this is Bobby" Angel sounded extremely pissed off "Something tells me he was on his way to deliver a warning"

Bobby nodded his head.

"What's his name, Keenon?" Bobby asked the guy and knew how scared he was.

He was surrounded by four guys, all standing dangerously close to him and he knew well how small his chances were.

But it was Jack again that made Liz smile. He looked as if he was 5, making badass faces.

Too cute, she thought.

"Damian" the guy finally said "He's my brother"

"He's your brother? No shit, these are my brothers"

They guy took a closer look at each of them as if he didn't understand him.

"No, dog, he's my real brother"

"Yeah, these are my real brothers " Bobby said to the guy's confusion.

And that's when he noticed Liz standing behind them.

"And who is she? Another sister?" he asked mockingly but Jack immediately wiped the smile off his face and pinned him to the wall.

"I said no questions. Say another word without being asked and it's gonna be your last" his face was tense and everybody around knew he wasn't joking.

Liz was very impressed. Not that she enjoyed violence or smashing somebody's head into the wall, even if he deserved it, but nobody had ever acted like this for her, not even the old Jack she once knew.

But she was smart enough to see the danger. None of them wanted to bring any attention to her and that's what she was just doing so she only looked at Bobby and when he nodded, she went back to the car.

They came back five minutes later.

"We got the address"

When they got to the Gardens it was late afternoon and soon the sun started to change colors from a dark shade of purple to light orange and pink. They had been sitting in the car for over three hours but nothing suspicious happened and nobody resembling Damian appeared. That's when Bobby's phone called, breaking the tiresome silence.

He picked it up and suddenly turned pale. He didn't say anything for a while and finally looked straight at her.

"Liz, there was an accident" he said slowly "You mom is dead"

***

She didn't know how long she was sitting alone in Jack's room crying and trying to make herself feel better; she also wasn't sure how many times one of the Mercers checked on her, she lost count some time before midnight.

When they got home from the police station she locked herself upstairs and didn't want to talk to anybody but felt extremely lonely after a while when she couldn't cry anymore.

That's why she actually felt a little bit better when Jack slightly knocked on her door.

"Liz?" he asked shyly "You OK?"

He's never been that worried in his life like he was now. He knew exactly what she felt but didn't know how to help her.

"It's unlocked, you can come in"

When he walked in he saw her standing by the window staring into darkness. That's when he felt a strange urge to hold her close and make all those tears go away but he didn't do it. He just slowly walked to her.

This time it was him ready to help her and listen to her.

"They said it was a car accident. Accident my ass!" her voice was bitter and angry.

"Erm…Liz…" he started but she didn't let him finish.

"They knew it, Jack. Everything makes perfect sense now" she hesitated without looking at him when he stood by her leaning with his shoulder on the window frame.

"This Keenan guy, he saw me and an hour later my mother dies in a car accident. God, how stupid and naïve I was. This whole time they knew I was in this and that was their warning"

He was just looking at her dark profile without saying anything but he didn't know what to say.

"But they started with a wrong person" her voice changed drastically and Jack had never seen her like that "because I'm not afraid of them. Not any more. And now I am so into it. And they are gonna pay"

She looked at him but he still didn't know what to say so he just did one thing.

He nodded.

***

It was some time later when she finally fell asleep with his arms around her and her head on his shoulder but he wasn't tired at all. Instead, he was half-sitting and too afraid to move not to wake her up when Bobby appeared in the doorway.

"She asleep?" he asked whispering.

"Yeah" Jack nodded but the way he looked at her showed Bobby something that no other eye could see.

"Jack, I know I'm not an expert but I think you should tell her" he said surprised that for once he had a good piece of advice for someone.

"Tell her what?" Jack asked still holding her tenderly.

"Look, I've met many people and… women. But I would give anything to be able to tell them I love them. And if you love somebody, you should say it to this person every single day of your life. It just… clarifies things, little brother" he looked at Jack but didn't say anything else.

"Yeah" Jack sighed.

If everything was that easy.

But it wasn't.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

When she woke up the sun was up high above the horizon and for a split of a second she thought she was in her bed waiting for her mom to wake her up. That's when she heard muffled voices downstairs and the blunt truth of yesterday hit her with a new wave of pain.

She moaned and didn't move.

The only thing she wanted to do was to draw the curtains and lose herself in the unawareness of dreaming.

But she couldn't do it. No, she had to fight against what was to come and she knew she was strong enough to do it.

At least she hoped so.

It took her a short minute to get ready and quietly go downstairs. With every step down the stairs the whispers become a little louder and soon she could make some sense out of the words she heard.

"… the car's ready…"

"…gun…?"

"What about Liz?" she heard Jack when she reached to open the kitchen door "I don't wanna leave her alone, not now"  
"We have no choice, Jackie" Bobby's voice was firm "She's got herself deep enough in all this and she doesn't need to drown in this shit with us"

"And what if I want to?" she opened the door and she could tell they didn't expect her to eardrop on them.

"You want what? Die a pointless death and let the world go on?" Angel looked her straight in the eye.

"It's not pointless any more. They killed someone I cared about and I'm not gonna let it go. I'm going with you, boys"

***

The plan was simple: they were waiting for the guy to get back to his apartment and they were going to ask him a couple of questions. Bobby was talking to Angel in the front seats about marines and she was sitting with Jack in the back.

Jerry left an hour ago saying that he was to take his girls to gymnastics, he had a "schedule to keep" as he called it but Liz thought he just wanted to stay away from any trouble and she knew he was right to do so.

She was also aware that she should have done this a long time ago but it was too late for her now.

It was freezing cold outside and it was snowing but she didn't care. She touched her forehead against the cold glass of the car window and listened to Jack singing faintly.

_I don't mind_ _If it rains or freezes_

_Long as I got_ _My plastic Jesus_

She didn't know the song but she liked it, it helped her to forget why they had spent the last four hours in a cold car doing nothing but getting bored.

Well, except for Jack, who was now drawing on the car window heated up with his breath.

_Comes in colors_ _Pink and pleasant_

_Glows in the dark_…

He suddenly stopped.

"Oh, that's him. It's him!"

***

"Hell no!" she didn't care if the guy with afro walking by their car heard them or not; she got that far and she definitely wasn't going to stay in the car and wait for them.

She also had the advantage of time. The guy just walked into the building and if they wanted to catch him they had to hurry.

Bobby knew that too so he only sighed at her stubbornness and Jack unceremoniously handed her a crowbar.

"Just in case" he murmured and they all started towards the building after the afro guy who hadn't seemed to notice them.

When they rushed into the building the guy was about to get into elevator when Bobby shouted at him.

"Yo, Damian! You Damian?!"

If the guy had any doubts about them and their intentions, they all disappeared in a split of a second when Bobby took out his gun and held it up high dangerously; so he suddenly hopped into the elevator and it didn't help that they all run after him, the door closed right into their faces just as they got to it.

Bobby kicked the door with all his anger but suddenly noticed the emergency stairs leading to all the floors.

"Liz, stay here. Tell me where it stops" he said in a rush and after a minute all the guys found themselves running up the stairs and she was standing by the metal door, her eyes focused at the red dot flashing and pointing at what floor the elevator was at.

She could hear footsteps slowing down at the stairs and thought that their teenage time was long gone and their fitness with it.

"…four…five…six" she was looking at the dot and counting aloud when suddenly the dot stopped moving.

She rushed to the door and opened it violently.

"Six! It stopped at six!" she shouted and hoped that the guys hear it.

She wasn't sure what to do next. She didn't like the idea of going upstairs without any cover, someone might have seen or heard them so she stayed by the front door looking outside and listening to what was going up there.

And a lot was going on.

She could swear she heard dogs barking, someone shooting a gun and Bobby screaming; it all must have looked nasty.

But nothing shocked her more than the sight of the afro guy climbing down the building on a rope and suddenly falling down and hitting the ground under a weird angle.

And to her shock, she didn't care.

***

She was already standing above him when they left the building and walked towards her on the soft snow.

The guy was trying to breathe with a difficulty when they surrounded him.

"Man, you must be freezing" Angel burst out laughing and Jack joined him.

"You know why we're here, Damian?" Bobby asked stoically with a stone face.

"Come on, man, call me an ambulance"

They all looked down at him and Liz was surprised with what she saw.

It wasn't a monster that had something to do with killing her mother and hurting the people she cared about most. That was lying in the snow in front of her.

It was a hurt and defenseless man waiting for his death.

"You give us a name, we'll call" she said and kept staring at him.

"But if we leave, ain't nobody else gonna hear you out here" Bobby said and added "And they say it's gonna be a cold night"

"Look, man" the guy blurted out "these two fools said they'd pay me a few dubs if I said I saw some gangsters shoot up the place, all right? But I didn't hurt no one"

It was obvious he was scared.

Better now than too late, Liz thought.

"Give us a name" Jack put his foot dangerously close to the guy's face and he turned even paler.

"And where we can find him" Liz added.

She felt blood mercilessly pumping through her veins when she stood by Jack's arm and he protectively shoved her behind him.

The guy told them everything.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

She was mad as hell.

She was sitting locked in the car and all she wanted to do was smash Jack's cell phone as hard as she could. It was getting cold and the snow started to cover the window sheets which restricted her visibility in the darkness.

Once more she tried to prise the doors with her whole body but it didn't even twitch.

This time Bobby, Angel and Jack decided together that it was way too dangerous for her to go with them and when she protested they simply grabbed her and put her in the car.

It was Jack that left her his phone with an apologetic face and was now calling her so that she could at least hear what was going on.

"Don't you even try your tricks on me 'cauz it's not gonna work" she snapped to the phone and waited for him to say something"

"Well, sorry baby but I don't think it's a place for you" hearing his voice somehow made her calmer but that was quite opposite of what she wanted to feel right now.

"Oh, I'm gonna show you your place when I get my hands on you" she hoped he didn't hear what she really meant by these words but something didn't let her to stop thinking about it.

"Well, I can tell you for sure that nothing exciting is happening right now. We're walking down a hallway and here come the stairs… Wow, it's pretty bright here. OK, so, for your information it says Casino Restaurant on my left in bright blue…"

"Jack!" she interrupted "Stop playing and talking some shit about Casinos! Can you see him? The guy said he's wearing a goatee, look for a goatee"

She heard some muffled voices on the other side of the line.

"I don't know, guys" Jack was back with her "I don't see nobody with a goatee. Wow, this place is fancy" he added after a minute "Hey Liz, you need to come up here one day and see it yourself"

"Well yeah, if I could I would right now. So why don't you let me out?"

Jack didn't have time to answer because suddenly she heard Bobby.

"There he is. Right there. Come on, let's get him"

It was followed by loud gun shots that she could even hear outside the building.

There was nobody on the phone anymore and she only heard someone running, glass shuttering and someone shouting "Go, go, go!"

"Guys, what's going on?" she couldn't tell what was going on in there so in frustration she smashed the phone one the dashboard.

It was then she saw two guys running and getting into a car parked nearby, followed by the Mercers and Jack shooting at them from his gun.

They had already left by then but one of the bullets hit their back window and crushed it into pieces.

"You go, girl" Bobby was already in the car about to start it "Let's get these motherfuckers".

And the crazy chase began.

Liz didn't even know that it was possible to drive like that and not get them killed, she's seen something like that in movies before. There was snow all around them but it took her a minute to realize it wasn't falling from the sky but from down below them where their tires skidded violently.

"Watch it, Bobby" she heard Jack shouting but she didn't think it would change anything. Bobby was so into it and he wasn't planning on letting it go.

She only heard him saying "I got no traction!" when she realized it was better not to look outside but just sit and focus on the interior of the car.

It was the next turn which was way too icy for their speed and they hit a car parked on the corner but they seemed not to even notice it and started to gain even more speed.

"Shit! I scraped the whole side of my car!"

Well, Bobby did notice it, Liz thought. Shame it wasn't because he almost crushed it.

"Get these guys before you kill us!" Jack was sitting close to her, his hand as if ready to hug her for her protection, but he hadn't moved it yet.

"Sit back and put your seatbelts on!" Bobby shouted but he didn't have to tell them that twice.

Suddenly she heard gun shots and a few wholes appeared on their windscreen.

"Where the hell is the shotgun, Jack!?" Bobby asked in a rush and with a terror she realized Jack was still holding it in his hands.

"Jack, no" she tried to stop him.

She didn't know why. She should want those guys dead and she did. They killed her mother and they should pay for it.

But not like this, she thought. This is not the way.

"I'm sorry Liz, this is the only way" Jack looked at her and she could feel how difficult this decision was for him when he was passing the gun to Angel n the front seat.

It took Angel only two shots and the car in front of them dangerously swerved on the icy road, jumped off the snow bank and got stuck in the snow right where he landed.

This was a perfect opportunity for them.

With their whole strength and speed they hit the other car which turned around and started literally to roll over the street still maintaining its high speed only to stop on its roof.

Nobody could make it through this.

They all got out of the car and Jack grabbed her hand and stopped her from running when Bobby and Angel took out their guns and slowly approached what was now a pile of steaming and twisted metal.

To her amazement two shapes crawled out of it but they had nowhere to run. When Bobby and Angel got to them, Jack turned around and let her bury her face in his arms so that she didn't have to see it. But she could hear all the punches and curses from behind her, and screaming of a man dying in pain.

And then two shotguns came.

And then Jack had to hold her not to let her fall.

***

"Ouch!" Liz was trying to patch up Jack's ripped arm while Angel's girlfriends was taking care of Bobby, who was not wriggling in pain.

"You're such a pussy, Bobby" she was losing her patience.

"Give me a break, will you?"

Liz only smiled faintly.

This night has been horrible so far. She didn't remember exactly their way back home, she only felt Jack close to her but when they finally got there she couldn't sit and do nothing so she tested her first aid skills.

What else could go wrong tonight?

Her phone rung unexpectedly so that it made her jump.

"Hello?"

***

"OK, so they're in town and they're gonna be here in about 5 minutes" she gathered them all in one room to make sure everybody knew what to say.

Or how to behave.

"OK, so explain it once more to me. Your aunt and uncle are coming over here. In 5 minutes. And it's only what, 12 p.m.?" he was trying to be sarcastic but she didn't have time for this.

"Yes. They couldn't come for mum's funeral and they are passing by so they're stopping for the night"

"And we are supposed to act as a normal family?" Angel asked miserably from his chair.

"Good luck with that" Jack snorted but stopped immediately under her gaze.

"Exactly. They know I'm staying here only because I have nowhere else to go, which is partly true. So, please be nice. No spooky stuff, no guns, no talking about killing, shooting or whatever else you can think about that's not appropriate to talk about" she looked at Bobby meaningfully "They still think mum died in a car accident and I want it to stay that way. So, can you do this for me?" she asked pleadingly.

"It's one night, right?" Bobby asked.

"One night only, I promise"

"OK, we can do that, we can act normal once for a change, right guys?"

Oh my, she thought, this was going to be tougher than she initially thought.

***

"Lizzie, you've grown up!" her aunt was pulling her into a tight hug and she only made it because her uncle intervened in time.

"Well, dear, we haven't seen her for a few years now, have we"

She was trying to put everything that happened out of her mind and smile radiantly.

"Oh, poor child, how are you? I am so sorry, such terrible news" her aunt hugged her once more but she wasn't about to choke this time "How are you holding up?"

"I'm OK. I mean, I've been better but I'm not alone in this so I'm gonna make it"

"Oh, true, these are the handsome men you were telling me about!" her aunt looked at them charmingly "I am so grateful you are taking care of my niece in this difficult time, I'm sure it's a great comfort for her"

"She's rather taking care of us, m'am" Bobby laughed with even more charm and Liz was surprised he would ever do that.

"She also told us many great things about you, folks. Come on, come in, it's freezing outside" she was stunned when Jack invited them in but she didn't like the look on his face. She knew him too well. He was planning to do something stupid.

It took them a few minutes to get their luggage inside and the time of introductions came.

"So, guys, this is my aunt Muriel and uncle Nick. And these are... the guys. This is Bobby, Angel and Jack" she was about to lead them into the living room when suddenly Jack grabbed her hand and said with a very serious tone.

"Her fiancé"

Everybody fell silent.

Liz chocked as if there was no air and Bobby looked as if he was going to explode with laughter any minute.

"Lizzie, are you telling us that you two..." Aunt Muriel didn't finish the sentence but look at her and pure happiness spread across her face.

"I... am?" she said not sure what to do in such a ridiculous situation when she disappeared in a double hug from her family.

"Oh, dear, it's wonderful news! Your mother would have loved it!"

Liz was trying to give Jack the deadliest looks she had but he seemed to be interested with a stain on the wall.

He was going to pay for it.

Oh yes, he was.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

She's never been that pissed all her life.

They were sitting together by the dinner table having a laugh at 3 a.m. in the morning, the most surprising set of people that could ever sit at one table, her aunt and uncle that used to feed their puppy with a spoon and the three Mercer brothers that years ago used to chase puppies like these down the street.

If she wasn't mad, she would find it greatly amusing, that Bobby claimed he loved "I love Lucy" and Angel insisted on aunt Muriel giving him the recipe for home made chocolate cookies.

But she was only sitting at one end of the table looking at Jack, who was making an excellent show and was apparently just getting started.

He was extremely eager to tell everybody how he and Liz met, how they fell in love and promised to each other never to part. The problem was he missed a few tiny details that would completely change his story and added some new ones that made it even more cheesy and movie-like.

And that was another thing that ticked her off. He was talking about an alternate story that had never happened and it was partly his fault but it also reminded her of what a coward she once was and how she missed her chance for the happily ever after.

So she didn't say anything, she was just sitting trying not to explode in front of her aunt and uncle.

But she couldn't listen any more of it when he started to describe in full details how he proposed to her and how romantic he can get.

She knew he would never do any of it and everything inside her started to boil when she suddenly got up.

"I'm sorry but I need my other half to help me with… coffee" she said looking at Jack meaningfully.

But he only grinned at her as if he missed her coded message saying "Kitchen, NOW!"

But apparently her aunt didn't.

"Oh, Jackie" she laughed half jokingly "you're in trouble now".

He didn't say anything but followed Liz.

When he closed the kitchen door behind him she was trying to set the cups on the table but now when they were alone, she couldn't control her hands shaking any more.

She only gazed at him when he stood opposite her by the other side of the table as if it could kill him.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she confronted him when they could hear loud laughs from the dining room again and she was sure nobody could hear them.

"What do you mean? I'm only entertaining our guests, the exact thing you asked us to do" he looked at her innocently.

"Entertaining them?!" she almost broke the cup in her hands when the saucer seemed not to fit its rim "You are making one hell of a show! Fiancée?! Where the fuck did that come from!?"

"Liz, calm down and please stop cursing, it doesn't sound natural coming from you" he said with no emotion in his voice which didn't have any positive effect on her.

"I'm not fucking cursing!" she hissed but took a deep breath and tried control herself again.

"What were you thinking, Jack?! We're so deep in this that there's no way of telling them the truth right now!"

"But why do we have to say the truth? They love me, Liz. And you know what I think? That's what's bugging you so much" with every word he leaned over the table towards her to confront her but kept enough distance to be able to step back in case the cups looked too tempting to her not to throw it at him.

She was about to say something back when suddenly the kitchen door opened and in a split of a second Jack decided to act under the excitement of the moment.

She wasn't sure what was happening but one moment she looking straight into his face and a second later he was close to her, his eyes inches from hers, his lips on hers.

Kissing her.

And she totally lost it. She could smell his cologne that always drove her mad.

She loved the way his whiskers prickled her soft cheeks and his hands held her face tenderly.

In one short second she forgot where they were and what they had been doing. It was only them and nothing else mattered.

She even forgot how mad she was at him.

So she kissed him back when somebody cleared his throat shyly to apparently get their attention and they both sprang away from each other both looking surprised somebody caught them on making out.

But there was more to that. They were both surprised with what just happened and the sudden wave of emotions that flooded them both.

She couldn't believe that she was able to feel it all over again as if she was a teenager.

And that she had missed his touch so much.

He didn't expect her to kiss him back but when she did he didn't want to stop. And for a hundredth time he thought what an idiot he was walking away from her and losing what every guy would give anything to have.

***

It got late enough for everybody to decide it was time to go to sleep so she was leading her aunt and uncle to show them their room when they suddenly stopped.

"And where are you going to sleep, hun?" her aunt asked her innocently but when Liz answered "My room" she realized what a mistake she had made.

"So you two don't share a room?" aunt Muriel asked surprised as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"Exactly, Liz, don't we?" Jack was not helping the situation at all.

"Of course we do" she stammered and laughed nervously" I just didn't feel comfortable enough…"

"Oh, rubbish, darling" her aunt cut in "You two are young! So go, have fun and don't worry about us. Bobby and Angel are going to take a great care of us, right boys?"

The "boys" nodded with apparent smirks on their faces.

"All right, we will certainly do that" she said with a sour smile but when her aunt didn't look she mouthed at Jack "You are so dead".

She was sure he got it but he didn't seem to worry about it.

He actually looked excited.

***

He was sitting on his bed facing bathroom door adjacent to his room, where she was changing.

"It's not funny, Jack" she knew he was still enjoying himself and making fun of her.

"Oh, in contrary, I had the best time in my life" he took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one "You know, your aunt would love to see me in your family" he puffed some white smoke out "Besides, it was worth it, you should have seen your face"

She swung the door open and looked at him, her arms crossed across her chest. She had a ponytail and was wearing her usual set of jammies, shorts and spaghetti-stripe top, which made his heart beat a little faster.

"You all had a lot of fun, I'm sure" she turned the lights off and sat on the other side of bed putting some stuff on her face and brushing her hair once more.

"I can guarantee you that starting tomorrow I'm gonna get a dozen of phone calls with questions about presents for us. Hell, I'm sure that they're even planning the reception right as we speak" she turned the night lamp off and darkness swallowed them.

He only felt her lying beside him but he knew she wasn't going to fall asleep.

It wasn't that they felt uncomfortable with each other. They trusted each other and knew that neither of them would try to do anything stupid but they were both lying, their eyes wide open, looking at the ceiling and quietly thinking about what happened in the kitchen.

"You know what? For a moment it felt like I was making them happy. For once in my life I was proud out of my stupidity" he said after a moment.

"It's my job, Jack. And you didn't have to lie to them to make them happy. You didn't have to come up with a bunch of stories that don't mean anything. Unless…" she hesitated and kept quiet.

"Unless what?" he asked as if he hoped she would say something.

"Nothing" she whispered.

Neither of them said anything anymore that night even though both of them hoped the other one would. But just as it happens in real life, the fear of rejection took over them once more and they both kept silent not knowing that destiny had already taken its course and luckily some things always ended one way.

But for them more time had to pass to make them realize that some things don't happen without a reason.

And to understand that their forbidden and stolen kiss started something new, something they couldn't stop. And it made them wonder that maybe it was possible they had met their destined significant other a very long time ago and they can find no happiness with anybody else.

But they were lying in silence two feet apart, each of them deep in thoughts, slowly falling asleep.

And next morning they didn't mention the kiss either.

And they weren't going to do it for a very long time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Some loud banging and moving furniture woke her up and it took all of her will to open one of her eye and check the time.

10 a.m.

So early.

She yawned and stretched on the bed. She was hoping to sleep in her own bed after seeing her family off early in the morning but apparently somebody was determined to change her plans when she heard some more weird noises coming from downstairs.

She rubbed her eyes and sighed but when she heard somebody shouting she decided it was time to check what was going on.

She opened the door and stepped out on the hallway when the door to Jack's room flew open and he appeared wearing only a towel tied around his waist, his damp hair tousled in a seductive way.

Him looking like that made such an impression on her that for a minute she lost her breath. He must have joined a gym a while ago because now a row of abs shaped his stomach and he sure didn't look like a boy any more. But what she loved even more was the outline of his tattoos flexing upon his muscled arms…

"What the hell is going on?" he asked and she noticed he was a little bit surprised by their awkward encounter.

"Hey, y'all" they heard Angel from downstairs "Police in the house!"

"Shit" Jack muttered and rammed his hand through his hair.

"I better change" she blurted out and closed the door behind her.

She knew they were in trouble.

She had already met the cops that were walking through the snow towards their front door; they came to Evelyn's funeral and she'd heard they were handling their case.

"Angel, mind if we come in?" she heard one of them asking when she opened her door ready to join them.

"You're already in, Green" he said sourly and she could tell he led them to the living room where Bobby was already waiting for them.

When she walked down the stairs she stood halfway behind Jack so that she could see the whole scene and she almost burst out in laughter. She knew Bobby had to cover the nasty wound on his arm from the other day so he put the most ridiculous robe she had ever seen; it was purple with pink and she was sure it would look ugly even on Angel's girlfriend which it belonged to.

"Cops are always welcome at the Mercers', it makes us feel safe and cozy" he said jeeringly and didn't even bother to get up but looked them straight in the eye.

"Jackie wanted this little number for himself but I fought him for it" he pointed the purple piece of cloth he was wearing and she smiled when she heard Jack sputtering and felt his muscles tensing under his black T-shirt.

"What happened to the hand?" the black cop called Green noticed a trickle of blood on Bobby's wrist and an awkward silence fell.

Liz moved a little bit closer to Jack and when he put his arm around her she somehow felt better.

"Did you happen to forget our little conversation we had at your brother's house about not interfering with our investigation?" he was now looking straight at Bobby as if he was trying to look right through him.

"It's hockey, an old Mercer family tradition" Bobby didn't tone down but he got up and came closer.

That's when the cop look at Liz and he looked even more suspicious.  
"Yes, apparently" he said still gazing at her "Guys can get pretty rough on that ice" he said mockingly as if he knew they were lying.

"Where's your car, Bobby? It's not outside" he finally asked.

And that's when Liz knew Bobby was cornered and for the first time he looked as if he wasn't sure what to say.

She knew it was time for her to step in.

"We left in at Jeremiah's" she said and felt that Jack pulled her closer to him.

That's when the other cop pulled something out of his pocket and waved it in front of Bobby.

"You know what this is? Forensics took it off a pair of contract killers we found dead this morning"

"How do we know you're not fishing for a confession with a phony hair?" it took a great courage of hers to ask the white cop as he didn't look as friendly as the other one. She knew he wasn't there to help them but to close them down.

"You think you're pretty cute, don't you?" he took one step closer to her to intimidate her.

And it worked.

"Look, Bobby" Green said apologetically "if you got something, you give it to me and we will run with this. But don't try and take on Detroit by your damn self. You keep knocking on the devil's door long enough, and sooner or later, somebody gonna answer you"

Bobby only smirked to this and Liz knew he didn't hear a word out of it.

***

Later on she heard somebody knocking on her door.

"You didn't have to help me you know" Bobby was standing in the doorway "You don't have to drown with us"

The tone of his voice surprised her. He was calm and if she knew better she would think he wanted her to help them.

They all needed her.

"It's OK, Bobby. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I know what I saw and I've seen some terrible things. They killed my mother for God's sake! One way or the other, I'm one of you now and if one of us goes down, we all do"

"OK" he nodded and was about to leave but faced her again.

"You know, I always meant to tell you that if not for ma, we would have been dead or with a life sentence, but without you" he hesitated "without you he would have been lost. And being his older brother doesn't help much here, it must have been you. You saved him, Liz"

Something new appeared in his look.

It was appreciation and understanding and gratitude.

***

"What's that" she joined the guys in the TV room and sat on the floor with a bowl of popcorn on her lap, pointing at something Bobby was holding in his hand.

"We got it from the motherfucker from yesterday" Jack took a handful of popcorn and let some of it fall on the floor.

"Oh" her face got serious but a second later she looked at Jack reproachfully.

"Shit, Jack, do you need to make such a mess" she wasn't going to be his cleaning lady but when Jack was about to say something Angel broke the silence first.

"Bobby, what bastard hired these guys?"

Bobby looked at the driving license he was holding and the address on it.

"West Marine, it's by the river" Angel looked over Bobby's shoulder.

"Come on, let's take a look" they all got up and neither of them looked surprised when she got up as well.

They were about to leave when Sophie appeared in front of Angel and blocked his way.

"Now, sweetie, wasn't there a discussion about a dinner together? Because l seem to remember spending two hours in the kitchen" she said in her thick Latino accent apparently ticked off.

"We got some important shit to deal with, baby" suddenly Angel changed the tone of his voice and he somehow sounded… softer.

"Can we go?" Bobby asked brazenly and Liz got lost in the mix of English and Spanish when Bobby and Sophie started to fight with each other.

In all this, Jack was looking at them with a sexy smirk on his face that boiled her blood with both anger and… lust?

"Angel, you said this time was gonna be different" Sophie said reprovingly and when Jack put his head down to hide the smirk Liz smacked him on his head to wipe it off his face.

"Ouch" he pretended as if it really hurt him but Liz knew better.

"She's getting real comfortable here, man. What are you doing? I thought you were a macho man, a tough guy. You know, it's a real shame that little Jackie's the only one down to ride."

Angel only sighted to this and didn't say anything.

But when Jack leaned on the wall with his hand stretched behind her back, inches from her in this protective way of his and she smelled his cologne she understood Bobby perfectly. She would give anything to lead a normal life by his side.

But even though to outsiders they looked like a couple, always close to each other, each of them was always too scared to make the first definite move.

And that's when it hit her.

She loved him.

She always had. From their first date, she could not live without him. She even loved all the annoying things about him and wondered how she survived those three years he was gone.

"Let's go" Bobby's voice brought her back to reality "Say goodbye to your big sister, Jackie"

"You're gonna leave me, too?" Angel looked at her but she didn't know what to say so she followed Bobby and grabbed Jack's arm on her way out, who was still smirking at his older brother.

What she didn't know was that at the same time, Jack was thinking the same thing she did.

And he realized the same thing, as well.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

They were searching the room when Liz's phone rang. She flipped it open and was surprised to see Angel's number on the screen. Why was he calling her and not one of the boys.

"Hey" she tried to add something else when he cut in.

"Liz, can you go somewhere nobody can hear you? I don't want the guys to hear it" he sounded tense.

"Erm, sure" she looked at Bobby and pointed the door to the kitchen. She noticed he had found a whole arsenal of shotguns under one of the mattresses.

"What's going on, Angel?" she asked confused when she closed the door behind her.

"I just got a visit from a guy from State Farm about mom's insurance"

"And?" she asked when he hesitated but she felt it couldn't be any good news.

"He said, that the check is pretty high for a simple life-insurance and since it was Jerry paying the premium they have to investigate now"

Silence fell in the receiver.

"Investigate? Investigate what, Angel?" her voice revealed how worried she was.

"He's broke, Liz. And with his criminal record they think that this was his solution. They think that he killed mom to get the $40 000 from her insurance"

It took her a minute to get calm again.

"40 000 dollars?!" she forgot to lower her voice down and instinctively looked at the kitchen door hoping nobody was listening "What the fuck is he going to do with 40 000?!"

"I don't know but I called this guy that used to work for him and he said that the luxury condos Jerry is working on bring in all the gangsters"

"Wait" she was still not comprehending this "So you're saying Jerry got mixed in with some gangsters?"

"I need to check it Liz, I have to make sure that it's all bullshit and he's OK. I've heard about this city council guy Dougles, who shut down Jerry's warehouse project, he'll know who Jerry got mixed up with"

"Check how?" she had a horrible feeling all this was not going to work out.

"I have to go Liz. I called you so that somebody knows where I went in case… I'm gonna call you later. Please, don't tell the guys"

"Wait, wait, wait… Angel!" it was too late and he had already switched his phone off.

"Yeah, sure!" she screamed into the receiver but knew he couldn't hear her any more "Just leave me here!"

Suddenly the kitchen door open and Bobby looked at her enquiringly.

"Everything OK? Who was that?"

She went pale.

"Oh, nothing important. Just my cousin's godmather's… cat is sick" she felt incredibly stupid "So she was calling me to ask what to do"

"I didn't know you're a cat expert" he didn't seem convinced so she quickly decided to change topics.

"So, you found anything?" she asked lightly and went out of the kitchen into the living room where Jack was still looking around.

"A camera" he was holding it in his hand.

"OK, come on" Bobby decided it was time to go and lead them towards the front door.

***

She's been flipping through the channels for almost 10 minutes and she still couldn't find anything interesting so she turned of TV and threw the remote onto the table.

She comfortably laid her back on the side of the sofa and heavily sighed.

The guys had been looking through the guns they had found and she couldn't be even remotely interested in that, so instead she decided not to do anything for once.

She was tired.

She was sick of searching and then running away. She was fed up with this whole situation, which inevitably changing her life forever.

And most importantly, she was tired of lying and pretending, tired of hiding in her shell and hoping that nobody would notice what really was going on.

"Hey, what the hell are y'all doing now?" Jeremiah entered the kitchen just as Bobby was pointing one of the guns at the door.

"Just getting a head start on next year's taxes, Jerry" Bobby said putting the gun away and grabbing another one.

"Hey, Bobby" Jack called his brother and showed him the camera, which they found in the apartment, in his hand.

A flash of disbelief and anger appeared on both their faces.

"What is it?" Liz got up and looked over Jack's shoulder.

She immediately understood their reaction.

There were around a dozen of pictured of Evelyn Mercer with some guy and Liz had a funny feeling she had already seen him somewhere before…

"They were tracking mom" Bobby said and his voice sounded suspiciously mellow.

"That's that guy, the lawyer! He said he only met her once, Bobby" Jack pointed at the picture and Liz thought that as for the first meeting, they looked remarkably… friendly.

She also looked at Jerry and noticed how his face changed.

She knew he could never have hurt their mum but something was terribly wrong about him.

"Where the hell have you been? I've been trying to call you the whole day?" Liz heard Bobby asking and when she looked up she noticed Angel closing the front door behind him.

She sighed relieved as he seemed to be alive and unhurt.

"Following up new leads" he said looking straight at Jerry who apparently got the message and looked extremely uneasy.

"Let's go" Bobby picked up his jacket "Jerry, you coming with us? Don't you wanna find out who hired them?"

"Yeah" Angel was still looking him straight in the eye "Don't you wanna find out who killed mom?"

"Of course I do, man"

"Let's go, stop bullshitting"

Jerry followed them and soon she heard the roar of the car fading away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"You do realize what idiots you made out of yourselves?" they were all in the living the room; the Mercer brothers sitting on the couch looking at her meekly and she was standing like a prison guard.

"You're extremely lucky he's not gonna sue your asses off" she was so mad and ashamed of them.

"Stripping him in front of his house and SLAPPING HIM?! Don't you even think about going anywhere" she pointed at Angel, who immediately sat down apologetically.

"And I don't even want to think about breaking his back window. What did you think you were doing? He's a lawyer for Christ's sake! He can have you put into jail for the rest of our lives!"

"He said it's OK about the window and that he understands" Jack was trying to console her.

"Besides, how were we supposed to know that mum was dating someone?"Bobby asked "He said he still has some of her night things"

"Uh uh, too much information man" Jack stretched "But he also said that mom had been upset with Jerry's business situation. And that the police report covers it"

"What police report? But this Green cop said that they weren't going to talk to the lawyer because he wasn't on their list" she was surprised to hear they would bother to talk to him outside their jurisdiction.

"Exactly" Bobby was smirking as if he has just discovered something.

***

She heard Jack taking the shower and she was guessing Bobby was brushing his teeth when Angel opened the bathroom door.

"Hey, Bobby. I gotta ask you a question" she could hear him clearly as he door was wide open as well.

"What's up?" Bobby gurgled.

"You know me and Sofi did a lot of making up last night, I finally gave her that ring. But it seem like l got a little rust on the tools down here"

Liz squinted, How gross can you get?, she thought and got up to go downstairs.

"Ask the cockologist in the shower, man, he's the expert" she heard Bobby and she couldn't stop herself so she stood in the doorway and made sure that Jack heard her from behind the curtain.

"Yeah, an expert in how-not-to-use-it" whereupon she quickly turned around and left before any of them could say anything.

"Man, you need to do something about this" Angel said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah" they could hear Jack from behind the curtain "Like what?"

"I don't know, you're the expert" Bobby said mockingly and grinned at his brother.

"Oh Bobby, by the way, you remember what I told you about Jerry and his redevelopment project? I think that's something we should look into. l need y'all to go down and visit this city official named Douglas, he'll know who Jerry got mixed up with"

"Wait a minute" Bobby didn't want to let go "Why don't you tell me what you know, Angel?"

"Because this is gonna require a little finesse and we all know your prior reputation as a hothead"

"Finesse?!" Bobby was getting a little bit louder "I wrote the fucking book on finesse! I'm coming with you, Angel!"

But it was too late and Liz heard the front door closing.

"Angel!"

***

"So did you get anything?" Liz asked Bobby when he and Jack came back home the next afternoon.

"Yeah, we got a name" Bobby went straight to his bedroom and something was telling her he was about to get a gun.

"So how did you get it?" she asked Jack suspiciously "Did you have to beat somebody down?" she didn't like their means of communication even though she knew they were effective.

"We can be polite when we want, you know" Jack came closer to her and looked at her lustfully. She was only hoping she would not succumb when he started to play with a lock of her hair.

"Really, that's hard to believe"

Jack's face was lingering a few inches from hers and she could smell his aftershave that she always loved so much.

"You need to know that we are highly persuasive. And the guy is gonna smell gasoline for a long time now" he smiled at the thought.

"So what's the name?" she was almost whispering now that he was standing so close to her.

"Victor" Bobby appeared in the doorway with a gun in his hand "Victor Sweet"

***

"I followed Jerry, he got all the insurance money today" Angel told her when they were alone in the kitchen and she just started preparing dinner "And I got an interesting phone call today, somebody that works with Green and Fowler on this case"

"Fowler?" she tried to remember his face "Isn't that the asshole that came here and was all scary and badass intimidating?"

"Yeah. Apparently Green wanted to see all about that non-existent report of the lawyer so they watched the CCTV tapes form the police station. And it shows mom with Fowler talking by the desk, even though he never said anything about talking to her. He spent more than an hour with her…"

"… and nobody knew about it" Liz finished for him.

Wow, she thought. This case was getting ugly.

***

They were all sitting in the pub, Liz squished in between Jack and Angel.

It was actually funny when a couple of guys eyed her hungrily and wanted to buy her a drink but immediately backed out when saw the look on Jack's face.

He was sitting now on her left facing her and his two brothers and she was waiting when he would finally put his hand around her just as liked to.

"So what's going on, Angel?" Bobby just ordered his second beer and they all seemed to relax a little bit.

"Was the councilman helpful?" Angel asked and took a sip out of his bottle.

"Oh yeah, a real public servant. You remember a punk named Victor Sweet?"

"I remember a Malcolm Sweet"

Liz looked around and saw a couple of blondes staring at Jack and giggling in the corner so she demonstratively put her hand on top of his. The girls had a nasty look on their faces and Jack looked at her with one eyebrow raised (she never knew how he could do it) and gently squeezed her hand so that she could not withdraw it.

Not that she wanted to.

"Victor was his nephew" Bobby continued without looking at them "Used to deliver things for his uncle, like firebombs and beatings. You remember, Malcolm used to love to humiliate him all the time"

Angel nodded as he remembered it all too well.

"Apparently Victor got sick of ass-whuppings and sunk his uncle into the river. He owns the whole neighborhood now"

"Hey, Bobby" Angel was blankly staring at something in front on him "Word around town is that Jerry owed a lot of people some money. Recognize that dude over there?" he pointed at a guy sitting at one of the tables across the dance floor "That's Evander Pearson, Jerry used to hang out with him during the union days" Angel took another sip "He goes by Evan now. And he's working for a guy named Victor" he looked at them meaningfully "

"So why are we here, Angel?" Jack asked curiously when suddenly his face went blank and Liz looked at where he was looking.

And lost her breath.

It was Jerry standing by Evan's table. And giving a big fat envelope to him.

"Oh, shit" she heard Bobby saying when he got up to get a better look at the scene.

"I found out Jerry got a big insurance check for mom's death" Angel added.

"Forget Jerry, we're gonna find him later. Come on" Bobby said and they all followed him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

They were elbowing their war through the crowded club, Jack's hand firmly on Liz's.

"Yo, Evander! What's up?!" Bobby was leading a people were literally melting in front of him but Liz wasn't surprised. Bobby was really pissed off and she knew that right now he was capable of everything.

And apparently those people noticed that, too.

When Evander saw them coming up right to his table he got pale and immediately got up.

"We're leaving" he barked to a few man sitting next to him.

"Nice to see you boys" this time his tone changed to a meek one but Liz disliked him even more when he looked at her and ignored her presence "We was just leaving"

"You ain't going nowhere. What was you talking to my brother Jerry about?"

"Nothing, just saying hello. Me and Jerry go way back to the union days. You know that, Bobby" the guy was visibly nervous and extremely uncomfortable.

"Angel tells me you're one of Victor Sweet's boys now. Hear he's running shit like his uncle. Treating you like his uncle used to"

The guy didn't say anything but was just looking at them.

"What's in the envelope?" Jack asked but his voice was weird, as if muffled. Liz looked at him and her heart broke when she saw the expression on his face. It was hurting him so much that his brother could do anything like that but he was trying not to believe it for as long as he could.

"What envelope?" Evander asked innocently.

"You wanna play that fucking game with me right now?" Bobby took one stop closer clearly to intimidate him.

And it worked.

He also moved unzipped his jacket so that they could his gun.

"Bobby, not here" Liz said quietly but firmly. She knew that if it went ugly, many innocent people would be hurt.

"Right here, right now" Bobby said still looking at the guy.

"Just give us the envelope and we walk away" she calmly gave it another try.

"NOW!" Angel started to lose his patience when the guy reluctantly reached his back pocket and gave it to him.

"We'll see your ass real soon" Angel added when they were leaving.

She was following Bobby behind Jack and Angel, when he suddenly turned towards her and stopped her.

"What the fuck was that?" he was looking down on her but she wasn't scared "You're with us and that's OK with me but never talk to me like that in front of other people"

"Bobby, I understand what you do and I pretend that I don't see many things. But look around you. There are other people, Bobby. People, who have done nothing wrong and should not pay for those who have. They are not part of this and I'm not gonna let you make them"

"Remember who you're talking to, Liz. I've done worse things than that and if I want something done, I do it no matter what"

"I know" she nodded "But remember one thing. It's about who killed your mother" she accented each word separately "And she wouldn't want this" and with these words she left the place.

She knew that with the last sentence she had some control over Bobby's bloody instincts.

***

They were sitting in the car in front of Jerry's house. It was pretty late but the guys could not sit in one place and apparently Liz was the only one not fidgeting. She was just sitting in the back next to Jack squished in the corner and absentmindedly biting her thumb nail.

Suddenly Bobby broke the silence.

"I ain't playing no more. I'm gonna go in there and bust that melon to find out what he's thinking" he said and tried to open the door when Angel grabbed him and pulled back into the car.

"His family's in there" Jack leaned towards them and Liz gave him a warm smile of gratitude.

That's why she had always loved Jack. He might be a badass with a criminal record but he always cared about those around him.

"You're gonna have to calm down" Angel didn't like the situation either but he didn't want anybody to get hurt without a reason.

"Oh, I'm calm" Bobby was breathing heavily and it was obvious that he was anything but calm "He thinks I'm an idiot"

"Let me just call him" Angel took his phone out and dialed the number.

"He thinks I don't know what the fuck is going on" Bobby kept on talking when they were all anxiously listening to Angel on the phone.

"Jerry, it's Angel. Look, man. We need to meet up first thing tomorrow at Mom's house"

"I'm gonna kill him" Bobby was losing it.

"Calm down, Bobby" Jack sat back in his seat.

"We still family, right?" Angel continued on the phone and when Liz looked up she saw Jerry inside the house talking on his cell not knowing that they were right there.

"Okay" Angel folded his phone and put it back into his pocket.

"Is he coming?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah" Angel nodded.

"Good"

Liz felt goose bumps on her back when she heard Bobby saying this.

It didn't sound good at all.

***

It was a freezing morning and it had been snowing the whole night so the guys were sitting in the big room by the fire while Liz and Sophie were in the kitchen looking at some bridal magazines. The scene looked idyllic except Liz knew it wasn't going to stay like this for long.

When Jerry finally came, he used the back door.

"What?!" he looked at Jack and Angel sitting on the couch while taking his gloves off.

"You know what you did" Angel showed him the envelope and the money inside.

"No!" Jerry's face shrank "You don't know who you fucking with! Where's Bobby?" he turned around but not fast enough to miss Bobby's fist flying into his direction.

The impact blew him off his feet and when Liz and Sophie rushed into the room, Jerry was lying on the floor, Bobby hovering above him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" he shouted holding his nose.

"What are you hiding Jerry? Huh? What are you hiding?!" he was holding Jerry's jacket while the latter was trying to get free of his hold.

"If you had something to do with what happened, I swear to God, Jerry, I'm gonna kill you right here and now!"

Sophie wanted to say something but Liz squished her arm not to.

"Angel's gonna ask some questions. And, brother, I shit you not, the time for lying is over!"

"We know you're lying about your business. And we know you got mixed up with some gangsters"

It was then Bobby finally let him go but didn't let him get up.

"Y'all think I had something to do with Mom getting killed?" Jerry asked desperately.

"You got a check for $400,000 that you just so happened to forget to mention from Mom's life insurance!" Angel was slowly losing it, too.

"She took out the police for the girls! Man, I ain't have nothing to do with that. Come on, man!"

"You made the payments" Jack said from the couch when Jerry started to get onto his feet.

"Good timing, Jerry! Just when it seems like all is lost for you, Mom gets shot by some gangsters and now you hit the fucking lottery!" Bobby was standing dangerously close to his brother.

"So y'all tripping because I made insurance payments?!" this time Jerry sound hurt and Liz could tell he was sincere.

"What?! I paid all her bills!" he suddenly pushed Bobby away and took a deep swing at Angel.

"Where the fuck were y'all? How many years did l have to take care of her my goddamn self? Y'all were around doing nothing! Bullshitting! And you gonna tell me l killed her? Come on, man!"

"So why would you pay off a killer like Sweet?! And what the fuck did he do for you, Jerry?!!" Angel took one step closer towards him.

"What did he do for me? He killed my fucking life! I put everything in that project! Then Vic's goons gonna come to take a peace!"

"You paid him, Jerry" this time Bobby wasn't so sure about his brother's fault any more.

"No, no I didn't pay them! That's why they shut me down!"  
"I thought the city cut you off, Jerry" Jack remarked.

"Douglas? Come on, man. This is Detroit! Sweet owns Douglas! I don't pay him and now he shuts my loans off!"

Somebody knocked on the front door so Jack got up and left them in the heat of the conversation.

"End of story, end of project!" Jerry was shouting by now.

"So what about the 10 grand?" Angel pointed the brown envelope on the table.

"I just told you. You wanna cross the bridge, you gotta pay the toll. I took the money out of Mom's insurance. I was gonna pay the bribe until y'all fucked it up"

Liz was standing there the whole time leaning on the door frame when suddenly a bad feeling hit her, one of those horrible premonitions, and her heart stopped beating. She looked at Bobby panicked when he suddenly looked back at her.

"Jack!" he exclaimed and rushed towards the front door, everybody right behind them.

They ran out of the house onto the street when and saw Jack standing about 30 feet away from him and a masked guy pointing a gun right at him.

"Jack!" Bobby shouted but it was too late.

Liz heard the gunshot and with a horror she saw Jack falling onto his knees and slowly slumping on the ground.

"JACK!!!" she heard her own voice cutting through the freezing air like knife in a butter.

And in a split of a second her whole life turned upside down.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Everything happened so fast.

With a shotgun in his hand, Bobby ran onto the street and aimed at the masked guy just as he was about to shoot Jack right into his head. It took Liz a moment to realize that the second shot she heard was from Bobby's gun and she saw the masked gunman falling onto the ground.

That's when a van stopped on the other side of the street and a half of a dozen armed masked men jumped out of it and took positions.

Suddenly Liz saw Jack getting up and running towards the house, bent down and holding his chest but after just a couple of steps he had to duck to avoid the rain of bullets and he didn't get back to his feet again.

Liz was standing in the doorway with Angel and Jerry, looking at this bloody scene and Bobby shooting like mad in all directions but she couldn't stay like this. She looked at Jack lying harmlessly on the asphalt and without thinking she took off to help him but she only took a few steps when she felt strong hands on her arms making her halt and she heard Angel's voice behind her.

"You can't help him now, Liz" his voice was steady but firm "We need to get you into safety"

She nodded weekly when all of a sudden Bobby turned around and all the masked men started to shoot towards them and the house.

They ran into the house and she felt Jerry pushing her down and falling onto the floor.

The bullets were everywhere. They were piercing the house like a sieve and they heard window glass shattering.

But they also heard something else that made Liz's blood run cold.

They heard Jack screaming from the outside and Liz felt tears running into her eyes.

Now, when everything was finally getting into the right place in her life and she had a small hope of making it through, she was going to lose him.

Now, when she finally knew that she couldn't live without him anymore he was going to be taken away from her forever.

More glass and pieces of the walls were flying around the room and now the bullets were reaching everything on their way, lamps, picture frames, books and even the record player, all were falling apart.

Liz heard Sofi screaming and she was only hoping that the other girl was OK.

"Booby!" they heard Jack shouting but none of them could do anything.

"Bobby!" his voice was filled with horror and pain.

She saw Bobby leaning over the shattered window hole and firing a couple of times.

"Liz!" she heard Angel through the piercing noise of the guns "Give me the gun!"

Still bent down, she opened the drawers of the cabinet nearby, took out two handguns and slid them towards Angel, who now joined his brother in the shooting spree.

Suddenly she saw one gunmen running into the house and when he saw her hiding in the corner he took an aim at her but Liz heard another shot and the guy fell down dead, taken down by Bobby.

"Bobby!" Jack's voice was piercing both the air and Liz's whole body.

"Jack, hold on!" she heard Bobby shouting, while shooting from his gun.

The shelf above Liz broke and a few flowerpots fell down barely missing her head.

That's when Jerry got onto his feet and ran into the kitchen.

"Jeremiah! Where are you going!?" she heard Sofi's voice and she saw one of the men running through the kitchen door and Jerry right behind him, grabbing him and stabbing a knife right into his chest.

"I got kids!" he stabbed the guy once more "A wife and a family!"

Liz saw the agony on his face. All this time he was avoiding going back to where he came from, the path of crime and death, but he was willing to sacrifice his new life for those he loved.

That's when he dropped the guy, turned around and ran out of the house to his car.

Liz saw Angel running upstairs and suddenly she noticed that now they only heard the guns and the bullets.

Jack wasn't shouting any more.

"Oh, shit" Bobby just realized he was out of bullets and looked around helplessly when he saw two big chunks of the wall and crawled to them.

He grabbed them and when they heard the guy outside changing his mag, he ran out of the house and through them right into his head.

Liz didn't hear any bullets anymore, so she got up and ran outside, too. There were bodies everywhere and Bobby was just fighting with the guy when she saw one of the men on the ground reaching for a gun and aiming at him. Automatically, she ran to him and with all the force she kicked the gun out of his hand when she saw Angel jumping down the roof onto his feet and running to help her.

She looked left and saw the van taking off and coming fast towards Bobby still beating up the guy.

"Bobby! The van! Watch out!" but suddenly Jerry's car appeared on their right and hit the van, pushing it onto the lamp pole. They guys jumped up and ran towards Jerry's car to check on him, when she ran to Jack and threw herself on her knees, gently seizing his face.

"Jack!" she whispered through tears "Jack, look at me!"

He opened his eyes and she knew he saw her when he found her hand and squeezed it.

"Jack, you all right?" Bobby came running "We need an ambulance!" he shouted.

"Jack! Jack!!!" she wept when a trickle of blood rolled from his mouth.

"Jack, please, you gotta breathe!"she was sobbing now and her words were blurring with her tears.

"Don't you die on me, Jackie" she was still holding his face "Jack, Jack, come on!"

She saw all the Mercer brothers standing around her and weeping with her, weeping for their brother who was slowly losing consciousness.

"Jack" she put her face to his cheek and kept whispering his name when the ambulance came.

***

They spent the whole night at the hospital, all except for Bobby who finally joined them early in the morning.

"How is he?" he asked calmly but it was visible he was boiling inside.

"He's been in the surgery room for over 2 hours. He got hit once and they took the bullet out but he lost a lot of blood" she was the one answering "The doctor said he hopes he's going to be OK but right now we have to wait" she said all this without even looking at him.

"Where have you been?" Angel asked.

"It was Victor Sweet. Sweet sent his thugs to do this"

"And why did it have to be our mom?" Jerry finally asked.

"Because mom was after him" Bobby said coolly "She knew her son and you didn't have to tell her about your business. She knew all about your trouble, man. The moment they shut you down, she went down there, raising hell with the councilman. And the cop, Green, has a dirty uniform he gotta deal with. You see, mom filed a report that got passed on to Victor Sweet. He said that then he's gonna deal with him. But what do you say boys, shouldn't we do something about it?"

They all nodded in unison and got up to leave except for Liz, who wasn't going to leave the hospital even for a minute.

"Bobby!" she called after him "How many more are going to pay for all this?"

He turned around and looked at her.

"As many as it takes"

And he left.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

It's been sleepless 3 days for Liz. After spending 48 hours by Jack's hospital bed, Angel finally persuaded her to go home and take some rest but even though she took a shower and finally had a normal meal, she didn't go to bed but sat on the couch instead, facing the window in the living room and kept staring blankly on the walls, silent tears rolling down her cheek. Jack had done many stupid things in his life but this time was different. This time he almost died with her telling him that…

She shrugged absent-mindedly and felt a chill going down her spine. She had always imagined Jack dying pretty young in some kind of gang fight but now that it almost happened, she couldn't bear it. She just remembered his pale face in the hospital, lying vulnerably on the white sheet. She also recalled the moment he finally woke up and the first thing he saw was her sitting by the window. If it was up to her she would never have left the hospital but she knew Angel was right and she needed some time off.

But she was tired. The last couple of months have surely been fascinating and adventurous for her but that was it. She was tired of constant danger and trying to conceal her feelings from everybody.

She could not deal with it any more.

No, as soon as she sees the guys, she is gonna tell them she quits. Just like that. She is going to leave. Somewhere, doesn't matter where. Just as far from this place as possible never to come back.

She was about to call Bobby and ask when they are coming back home when she heard the front door opening and their voices.

"Liz we gotta talk" Bobby passed through the room and went into the kitchen to get some beer.

"Hello to you, too, Bobby" she never gave up on lecturing him whenever she could.

"You OK, Liz?" Angel sat on the armchair beside her and she was touché by the sincerity in his voice, it looked like Angel really cared.

"Yeah, thanks" she gave him an external smile and hoped he would believe her, when Bobby finally settled next to her.

"What happened to Jack…" he started but hesitated for a moment "You know we never wanted this. That wasn't the plan. And I take the full responsibility for that"

She kept silent to show she couldn't agree more.

"I should never have come home in the first place. I should never have come" he took a sip from the bottle and looked her straight in the eye "And we should never have brought you into this. But we need another favor from you, Liz"

"Another favor, Bobby?" she bit her lip "I can't do this anymore, guys. I am exhausted. I haven't been out for weeks and it's been even longer since I had a normal conversation with a person who has nothing to do with this. I've sacrificed everything for what you're doing and I don't regret it but… I'm out. I'm done, Bobby, for good"

Nobody said anything for a while.

"Green is dead" Angel broke the silence "And we think that whoever did this to him, is going to come back and finish off his job with Jack. This "whoever" being Sweet""

She couldn't believe what she hard. The only cop that was actually on their side was actually dead.

"So what's that favor of yours?" she asked almost whispering.

"We have to get Jack out of the hospital" Bobby said and Liz almost laughed but stopped herself when she saw his face.

"What? The hospital is the only reason he is alive. And let's remember he's there because of you in the first place…" she wanted to say something else but he didn't let her.

"I am fully aware of that. But as I said, they are going to come back and finish Jack off, unless that's what you want"

She wanted to slap him. Really hard.

"You should know better than saying this" her voice was cold and calm "So what's the grand plan? What are you gonna do?"

"We have to sneak him out and he has to leave for a couple of days"

"Leave? Leave where?"

"Out of Detroit. We have a plan to get rid of Sweet but we can't worry if Jack is safe at the same time. And we want you to go with him"

"Oh, nice, so you have planned everything in advance"

Damn. This was going not as she planned. Instead of out, she was diving even deeper into this.

"And why do you need me to go?"

"We talked to him and he's able to drive but somebody has to go with him just in case"

"You can't be serious. He almost died 3 days ago and now you not only want to get him out of the hospital but you want him to drive?"

"It's not far away. We're gonna book a motel about an hour from here that should be far enough. Meanwhile we're gonna get ready so that when you come you're gonna know what to do"

"Oh, so you want us help you with carrying out your suicidal plan as well?"

"This is the last thing we're asking of you, Liz, I swear" Bobby sounded serious and for some reason she believed him "We just need you two to stay away for 2 days. 2 days, Liz, that's all I'm asking for. You're gonna be safe there and when you're back and we deal with Sweat, you can leave whenever you want"

She took a deep breath and prayed this wasn't a mistake.

"OK. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna help you in this crazy ride of yours. But when Sweat is dealt with, I'm out of here. And I'm not planning to come back"

***

They did it the same night. Jerry had a friend in the hospital who owed him, so 3 hours later, wearing a hospital outfit, Liz was walking down the green hallways pushing a wheelchair. She thought the whole plan was ridiculous and full of holes but she went with it and tried to stay calm.

"On our way to the car let me do all the talking" Tom, Jerry's friend was giving her instructions now since they didn't have time earlier "Nobody should ask any questions but relax, don't make them suspicious"

Jack was not surprised when they entered the room and smiled at her mischievously after hopping onto the wheelchair. They were walking coolly towards the main entrance and the parking lot, where the guys were waiting in the car and got home 30 minutes later. Tom had also showed her how to take care of Jack's wounds and prescribed him some painkillers but said that overall he should be all right.

It was after 3 in the morning when she put her suitcase by the stairs and knocked on Jack's door to see if he was ready. She entered the room after a quiet "Come in" and saw Jack without his T-Shirt, standing in front of his mirror and trying to put a bandage over the wounds and around his waist.

"Let me help you with it" she took it from him and started to roll it around his torso.

He was standing so close to her that she could smell him but she only tried to focus on her hands working with the bandage. Under a few moments of silence he evidently got tired of standing straight so he reached his hand and leaned it on the window frame, flexing his impressive muscles which made her fix her eyes on the rolled bandage and she almost drilled a hole through it with her gaze.

"Thank you, Liz" he said quietly and almost whispered her name. Every couple of seconds her face was closer to his and she was wondering what was gonna happen when she runs out of bandage.

"Thank you for staying with me at the hospital and getting me out of here"

"That's OK, I couldn't have left you there alone. I'm sure you would do the same for me"

The roll just finished but she didn't move away, she just kept staring at her hands, his face inches from hers.

"Shit, Jack, that was close"

He was about to say something when she interrupted him.

"What if they had killed you? I do want them to pay for all this but I wanna make it through in one piece. And if you die, you're gonna leave me"

She looked up at him.

"Don't you ever dare to leave me"

He slowly leaned towards her and this time she didn't resist. Because for a split of a second she thought that maybe this was meant to be…

"Guys, sorry to interrupt but are you ready?" Bobby was calling them from downstairs.

She snorted and took a step back.

"We're right there" she said, took her suitcase and walked down the stairs.


	18. Chapter 18 Part 1

Thanks for the comments, guys; I'm glad you're enjoying the story as much as I am.

I actually wrote an extremely long chapter 18 so I decided to divide it in two and I'm going to post the rest in a few days

**Chapter 18 - Part 1**

They had been driving for a while now and Liz was hoping they were going to look for a place to stay soon. They didn't talk much as they were both thinking about their almost-kiss and it made them uncomfortable to sit so close to each other. Alice Cooper's "Poison" was on the radio and Liz thought that it was pretty ironic given the situation they were in.

I want to love you but I better not touch – Hell no!  
I want to hold you but my senses tell me to stop – Almost did...  
I want to kiss you but I want it too much – Did he really want to kiss me?  
I want to taste you but your lips are venomous poison – Liz, stop thinking about it!

Her own thoughts were blending with the lyrics when she was looking throughout the window. The sun had already risen, casting a reddish shadow everywhere with its newborn light.

And there was nothing on the horizon for another couple of miles, just the road and their car, a little dot on the smooth grey ribbon cutting through the greenness of the grass surrounding them.

"How far is it?" she asked bored after the song finished and Jack lowered the volume.

"I think we're far enough. We could stop in the first motel we see or we could leave the main road and stop in one of the towns nearby"

Somehow the first suggestion did not make her enthusiastic so they decided that they should stay through the day and night in the first town they pass and leave tomorrow so that they would get back to Detroit in the late afternoon.

Liz knew that at the same moment, back home, Bobby, Angel and Jeremiah were working on some kind of plan to get rid of Sweet but being out of the city actually made her doubt that it really existed. Maybe all this was a bad dream. Surely, she would wake up soon...

She looked at Jack and thought that maybe after all she didn't really want to wake up. The sun was casting bright streaks of light on his blonde hair and him driving in the middle of nowhere reminded her of James Dean behind the wheel. Actually, when she thought about it, possibly they were going to die soon, too...

"You're awfully quiet" Jack broke the silence and when she looked down she noticed that he was holding his bent on his leg less than 5 inches from hers.

She could tell his painkillers were wearing off and that he was going to be extremely weary soon.

She sighed.

"Why, what do you want me to say?" she leaned her head back "We're off somewhere, probably for our last weekend in our lives and... I didn't see it coming. I had this grand plan, you know" she fixed her gaze on landscape to her right "I was going to graduate from high school, go to college, get a job, start a family and die of old age" she got quiet for a minute.

"How did I fuck up all this?" she whispered "I barely made it through the first stage. Damn, I didn't even try to apply to college"

She suddenly felt her life whooshing in front of her eyes and she couldn't slow it down.

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't graduate from high school so that wouldn't put me on your list, either"

She couldn't stop herself from asking him the next question.

"Was that because of me? That you didn't finish high school, I mean" she didn't look at him. She couldn't.

"Liz we've talked about this..."

"Yes, I know, we both got mad, you left. That's it. But, tell me the truth" she finally looked at him "If you hadn't have left, what would you have made of your life?"

"Probably nothin'. Not everybody is like you, Liz"

Wow, now that was sincere.

"Like me?"

"Not everybody aims that high knowing that..." he suddenly hesitated.

"Knowing what?" she asked bluntly.

"Knowing that people like us are too fucked up to do anything with their lives"

And that actually made her mad, this childish helplessness of his that made him give up anything he ever wanted.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not that fucked up. I could have done this. I could have done this all"

"But you didn't" she could tell he was getting irritated, too.

"What's your problem, Jack? Are you trying to pick up a fight?"

"I don't have no problem" he almost sounded as if he didn't care.

Almost.

"But now you see that all those plans of yours were bullshit. After all, you're here with me and we're going to end the same way. And what was all this for? Nothing. You can stay delusional and keep dreaming"

"Where is this coming from, Jack? Are you jealous that I had plans and dreams? You have had them once, too"

"I'm not jealous. But now you finally see that you are a failure. You are here with me and you can't even live on your own"

Now that was cruel. Everything started to boil in her.

"Stop the car" she said and when noticed that he was acting as if he hadn't heard her she shouted "STOP THE CAR!!!"

He eased onto the roadside and looked at her puzzled when she unbuckled.

"What the hell...?"

He didn't finish the sentence when she jumped out of the car, shut the door behind her and started to walk from the direction they came.


	19. Chapter 18 Part 2

**Chapter 18 – Part 2**

She didn't care what he was going to do but after a few moments she heard him shouting "Fuck!" inside the car and the sound of the tiers screeching on the road. She could tell he made a U-turn and soon he caught up with her driving slowly.

"Liz, where are you going?" he asked through the open window but she didn't stop.

"Far away from you!" she was pissed and she didn't feel like talking to him.

"Liz, you're going the wrong direction. Besides, the nearest town is a few miles away"

"I don't care" she kept her eyes fixed on the road "This is the road we came from so at least I know where it leads"

He followed her next few steps.

"Liz, I'm sorry, I don't know why I said it"

She suddenly halted and so did he.

"Let me make this straight. I'm here because of YOU!" she heavily separated each word "And maybe I'm a loser, maybe I should have worked harder to achieve anything I had planned but right now I sincerely believe that I am they way I am because of you. And I don't wanna linger to this but you left me, Jack and it just made me not wanna live any more. And it took me three whole freaking years to finally get over it when YOU appeared on my doorstep and dragged me into all this. So shut up and try to fix what you've ruined!!!"

She was breathing heavily from both waking fast and screaming all her lungs out.  
"I will, Liz, just please get in the car?"

She nodded and slowly opened the door.

Once in she felt like finishing this ridiculous conversation.

"And this is the last time we're talking about this"

He only nodded.

***

When they finally found a hotel and checked in it was around 1 in the afternoon and since none of them had any sleep the previous night they decided it would be best if they could get a nap and go and explore the place in the evening, they passed a row of pubs and bars on their way in and the owner of the place ensured them that it was bursting with life every night.

It was dark when she woke up and she found a note from Jack on the table informing her that he went out to have a drink or two and she was welcome to join him.

She checked the clock and couldn't believe her eyes; it was 9 p.m., which meant that she had been out for 8 hours!

When she finally got up she took a shower, brushed her teeth and thanked God that in all this chaos she had thought about taking some party clothes with her. Half an hour later she left the hotel wearing tight dark jeans and a golden top emphasizing everything she had to emphasize. She actually knew she looked good.

She looked around and saw Jack's car parked in the same spot they left it earlier so she guessed he couldn't have gone far off walking. Actually, she noticed a decent looking bar right on the other side of the street and her intuition led her inside.

And once more her intuition was right.

The bar had a very familiar look to it. It had loads of different neon lights on the wall and the air was heavy and smoky. The place was full of people, some sitting by the tables, the others swaying to the music on the dance floor.

She slowly took her coat off and let it rest on her clasped hands. She knew she was attracting attention of many men but she didn't really care. She scanned the crowd and it took her a minute to finally find Jack. There he was, sitting by the bar with a beer in one hand, the other one playing with hair of some slutty brunette sitting almost on him. Liz's possessive nature almost took over her but she almost immediately calmed down. She didn't want to make a scene and besides, they were not together and he could play with hair of whoever he wanted to play with.

"Who is THAT?" she heard on her right and when she looked around she saw two girls leaning over the counter and drooling at the sight of Jack.

She snorted and when she looked up she realized that he had noticed her.

And his eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

He got up and took a step towards her leaving the furious brunette behind.

She looked beautiful. He noticed she had curled her hair and he loved the way it was falling on her bare arms. He also liked the strapless top and lack of jewellery which made her neck look extremely vulnerable and seductive.

She smiled at him and headed to the exit. When he joined her with an extra beer, she was sitting on the hood of his car waiting for him.

"Wow" he said and handed her the bottle "You still know how surprise me"

She smiled and took a sip.

"I need a change from time to time. Every woman needs that"

"Not that you ever look unattractive"

They both smirked at each other.

Oh, boy, that was going to be a long night for both of them.

***

Three hours and countless number of drinks later, they were lying on the hood and looking at the stars. They weren't drunk but they were tipsy and long after icebreaking.

"So I told her, over my dead body. And I'm afraid she took it literally 'caus the next time I saw her I could swear I saw a knife in her pocket" he laughed and kept staring at the black sky sieved with millions of silver flashing dots.

"Jack?"

"Mhm" he murmured to let her know.

"Did you mean what you said today in the car?" she asked and wished she had another drink in her hand.

He snorted to that.

"I thought this was the last time we were supposed to talk about this"

"I know but it's not going to let go unless you tell me" she moved her head to get a better look at him.

"No" he said "I didn't mean it. I was grumpy and my whole body hurt me so I'm sorry you were the one that suffered from it"

"That's OK" she whispered.

She smiled when she heard "Miserable" by Lit, in her opinion one of the best songs ever.

"Wanna dance?"

She was surprised by the offer and didn't even have time to refuse when he was already pulling her off the hood and next thing she knew she was embraced by his arms in a slow dance.

It was also a good timing when it started to snow and the white fluff gently started to cover her curls and eyelashes.

"Bobby told me that after this you're going to leave. Is that true?"

His words startled her and reminded her of all the mess they temporarily left behind.

"Yeah, I'm gonna take off when it's all over"

He looked straight into her eyes.

"Do you have to go?"

She looked back and realized that they were not dancing any more but merely standing, her still locked in his arms.

"Give me a reason not to" she whispered.

In one second he bent his head and kissed her.

He took her off guard but she didn't fight back. Her whole body was telling her that this was the right thing to do.

So she kissed him back fiercely and passionately.

She reached up and locked her hands on his back pulling him even closer if that's possible.

They have been yearning for this for such a long time and into this one single kiss they put all the longing and suffering they had endured because of each other.

Suddenly, Jack's phone rung and as if on a cue they jumped away from each other. He didn't answer it immediately but let it ring while they were staring at each other. They both knew that they carelessly let off their guard and that they had to come back to reality.

Because it was calling them.

"Hi, Bobby" Jack greeted his brother while she leaned on the car and tried to forget what just happened.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

They hit the road around noon and expected to get back to Detroit in about two hours, which seemed to drag unbearably for both of them. They felt awkward in each other's presence after last night and they talked occasionally when they came up with something worth mentioning to break the silence.

"So what's the grand plan?" she finally asked.

"Bobby's working on it as we speak. They want to take the rest of the money from Mom's insurance and pay Sweet to call off the dogs. He'll deal. He's a businessman" headed when he saw doubt on her face.

"I don't know, Jack. It looks to me like Sweet will meet up with you, take your money and we won't be able to find your body till the river thaws. If you can get that far"

"We're gonna be OK, Liz, I promise"

Somehow she doubted that.

When they got home, Jerry just got home with news that Evander called Sweet about meeting at 4 o'clock the very same afternoon.

"But there is one thing" he added and everybody looked at him "If Fowler's there, Sweet is not gonna go for it"

"So there's no plan!" Bobby got impatient and left the room but they all followed him.

"Yes, there is, Bobby" Angel said coolly "We need to take Fowler out before we meet".

Liz couldn't believe her own ears. They weren't only signing their death warrants with trying to mislead Sweet but they were also planning another execution.

Of a cop.

"We can't kill a cop, even if he's dirty" Jack said and Liz smiled, she knew she didn't like him for nothing.

"He handed Ma to Sweet, OK? He ain't walking away from this" Angels said confidently.

"Woah, wait, wait, wait" Liz made a step back "Have you fucking lost your mind?! You're gonna kill a cop?" they didn't say anything to this but she saw from their faces that they were determined to do it.

"You know what? I'm out. For good. I am going away. Now. Before I get involved in something I want to have nothing to do with. So... good luck. And bye" she looked at them for the last time and confidently opened the front door and left the house.

It was freezing outside but that didn't discourage her. She didn't even care about the fact she left all her stuff in the house, she would pick them up later.

"Liz" she heard behind her and her heat fluttered with hope it was Jack.

Well, it wasn't.

Bobby stopped her in front of the house.

"You're, you have no jacket on" he said with concern but that didn't move her a bit.

"As if you cared" she said indifferently.

"Of course I do" he looked as if he wanted to tell her something "Liz, I know we had a deal but can't you make it just for another day? Another 24 hours?"

"Do you know that makes 1440 minutes? 86 400 miserable seconds when I'll be worrying myself to death. Besides, why do you want me to stay? What difference does it make?"

"We need you" Bobby looked very sincere when saying that and she was surprised how much he had changed over the last couple of weeks. Bobby Mercer had a heart.

Who knew.

"He needs you" he added.

She laughed.

"You know what, Bobby, that is not fair. You wanna hear the truth? When y'all showed up I was heartbroken. I was, and I'm not ashamed of that. And I was just starting to get better when one day I opened the door and Jack was right there. And he was all charming, sweet, just how I remembered him. And somehow I got involved in this... huge thing you're doing. And now you're gonna use it to make me stay? You know what Bobby, I was so sure I wasn't in love with Jack any more but... I am. And I finally have guts to say it loud. I love Jack. For everything. For the way he is, for how sweet he can be and how much he cares about me. But I can't stand by and look at him dying. I have once and it almost killed me. So I'd rather leave and hope that he survives than die inside again because this time, I'm not going to mend"

She was as surprised with her words as Bobby was.

"So why don't you tell him that?" he asked and she was about to say something when suddenly she heard behind her

"She doesn't have to"

She looked back and her heart stopped. Jack was standing on the porch, evidently listening for a while now.

"Great" she grunted and started to walk away down the street.

"Liz, please stop"

She did and she turned around to face him.

"What, Jack? What are you gonna say now? That's it's gonna be OK? And then you're gonna take off just as you did once" she almost screamed out and kept on walking.

"Liz, do you really want me to chase you?" he chuckled and she was sure he smiled this gorgeous smile of his "Because sooner or later I am going to catch you and make you listen"

She didn't stop and actually started to walk faster, almost running when she suddenly felt his hands around her waist and she started to shiver.

And she could tell it was not from cold.

He picked her up as if she was a feather and turned her around to face her before putting her back on the ground.

"Because I would go after you wherever you want me to. Because I finally have guts to say it loud that I love you. For everything. And I'm never gonna leave you again because it's you that make me happy. No one else, Liz. And it took me 3 freaking years to finally figure it out and now I'm not gonna let you go. Ever. So..."

She didn't let him finished but kissed him and felt some strange warmth flooding her body. And somehow she knew that now everything just had to be OK.

They broke the kiss after a long moment and Jack smiled at her.

"Now let's kick some gangsta ass"


	21. Chapter 20 Part 1

**Chapter 20 – Part 1**

Before they did anything, Jerry called his wife and one hour later they saw her and the kids off for their safety. Then it was decided Liz was going with Angel to help him deal with Fowler.

When they got to the neighborhood she was actually surprised that such a crook lived in such a nice house and she wondered how many people he had killed to get the money for it.

"You ready?" Angel asked her from behind the wheel and when she nodded they both got out of the car which they parked down block.

They parted by the neighboring house and Liz started to walk up the concrete path to the front door and knocked on it, while Angel, glued to the side wall, crawled from her left towards her.

After a couple of seconds the door opened slightly and Fowler looked around suspiciously. Her job was to make him open the door wider and she cringed at the mere sight of his cruel and revolting face.

"Yes?" he asked untrustingly.

"Hello officer, what a coincidence" she smiled innocently and fluttered her eyelashes "I'm sorry to disturb you but my car just broke down and my cell has no reception here so is there any chance I could use your phone?"

Fowler looked at her hungrily and she flinched inside but her efforts were not wasted when he opened the door wider.

"Why don't you come inside?"

Luckily, before she made a step towards him, Angel appeared on her left.

"I think not" he said coolly and in one swift move grabbed Fowler by his throat and put a plastic bag around his head. He then pushed him inside the house followed by Liz, who looked around once more but there was nobody on the street so she closed the door shut behind her.

"This is a big problem for you" she heard Angels saying while Fowler was struggling to get free "Even a completely calm person will suffocate in four minutes without oxygen. And you're not exactly calm, are you" he said smirking and buckling a belt around his victim's neck.

That's when she pulled her phone out and dialed Bobby's number.

"Liz?" she heard on the other side of the receiver.

"Hey, we got him"

"Is he out of the way?"

She looked down where Fowler was lying on the floor trying to unbuckle the belt around his neck .

"You wanna ask him?"

"Let me hear his voice"

"Hold on" she bent down and put the phone to Fowler's ear, which was not too easy since he was still fighting with the bag.

"Hey, man, say hi to my brother" Angel barked to him and Fowler made more squealing and whining noises.

"We got you now, bitch" she heard and finished the call.

Fowler finally ripped the bag open and desperately took a deep breath but when he sat up Angels was standing above him with a gun pointing at his head.

"People never think to go for the bag; it's always the belt first for some reason"

When she heard it a cold chill ran down her spine because from the tone of his voice she could tell it wasn't the first time he's done it.

"Get up, get over there right now" Angel pointed at the sofa while Liz was leaning on the wall praying that the whole plan was going to work.

If everything was going according to the plan, right now Sofi, Angel's girlfriend was supposed to be at the police station telling the cops that her boyfriend was about to kill Fowler. After all, they needed all help they could get to deal with him and showing them that it was Fowler, who was the villain, was another part of their job.

After a moment they could hear the sirens coming their way and a nasty smile appeared on Fowler's face despite the gun 5 inches from his face.

"You hear that? You know what that is? That's a damn beautiful sound" he smirked "Those are my boys coming"

Liz looked outside the window and there were about 10 police cars parked right in front of their lawn and dozens of police officers running around and aiming their guns at the house.

Good job, Sofi, Liz thought.

Now they had to show them somehow that it was Fowler they wanted.

"It doesn't look good for you two" Fowler chuckled.

Liz looked at him.

"Right now you're the one that can't move so shut up"

"You're so brave now, bitch? After all, all these boys were taking a good care of you" he looked at her maliciously "I wonder, which one did you enjoy doing most?"

Liz knew he was only trying to provoke her but she didn't care, she finally had to release all the fury and rage accumulating inside her.

She reached behind her, where she had her gun that Jack once gave to her, pulled it out, reached Fowler in a blink of an eye and hit him with the handle with all the force.

She noticed she didn't do much damage to him since only a trickle of blood dripped from his nose.

She bent down and hovered 5 inches above him.

"We'll see if they're still your boys after they find out you killed your partner, asshole" she said with one brow raised.

"That's your angle, huh? You gonna walk out there and tell them I killed Green?" he laughed "That's your story?"

"It has the advantage of being true" Angel said still aiming his gun at him.

"So what? I killed my partner" Liz couldn't believe how calm and merciless Fowler was while saying this "l could kill the whole damn police department if you were the only witness. You're one of the Mercer brothers. No cop in the world's gonna believe your word over mine. Sorry"

The worst thing was that they all knew he was right and they couldn't do anything about it.

Could they?

That's when she came up with a crazy idea and she only hoped Angel would notice it.

"You know what? You're probably right. Other than the ones l got outside right now in the van listening to every bit of our conversation"

Angel actually wanted to laugh out loud, that was ingenious. Of course it wasn't true but actually at the same moment Bobby and Jack were listening to what was going on with Jerry in Evan's van.

She noticed a shadow of uncertainty on Fowler's face.

"You're lying" he said but she knew he caught the hook.

"Take a look" she said with a deep satisfaction in her voice.

Angel let Fowler to get up and walk to the window, where they saw all the police cars outside.

"Okay, lieutenant" she said to her sleeve, as if she had a microphone hidden there "I'm bringing him out now"

"It's over, Fowler" she said when he was passing her but wasn't ready for the blow that suddenly came from him.

In one minute he was behind her with a knife by her throat.

"Drop the gun or I'll slash her throat" he barked and with hesitation Angel put the gun on the floor.

Jack would have killed him if anything happened to her.

"You want a real man, sweetie?" he panted into her ear and she cringed with disgust "If I'm going down, you're going down with me. And I'm gonna take a good care of you down in our cell"


	22. Chapter 20 Part 2

**Chapter 20 – Part 2**

Fowler opened the front door and led her out, holding her like a shield in front of him and aiming at the cops.

"I'll swear to God I'll kill her!" he shouted and started to move towards the stairs down the porch "You guys set me up, huh?" now they were by his car and Liz hoped Angel was going to get out of the house in the back so that nobody would notice him "If you'll real smart, you got this shit on tape!" he was still aiming at the confused policemen, who came to save him as a hostage and he was the one they were about to take down.

"Back off, I'm serious!"

"Fowler, drop the gun, man, we're here to help you" one of the cops shouted back.

"Put down your weapon" shouted another one.

"Not a chance!!!" he aimed at them and started to shoot at them.

He was so preoccupied he didn't notice that Liz freed herself from his tight grip and hid behind his car so that nobody could see her.

That's when one of the policemen hit Fowler's leg, and when he aimed back at him, another bullet got him in his chest.

Fowler fell onto the snow still holding the gun.

"He's down" she heard somebody crying "Call an ambulance!"

Very carefully, so that nobody would notice, she crawled from behind the car towards the back of the house, where Angel, Bobby and Jack were already waiting for her in their car.

She jumped in and they left with the car tires screeching.

"Everything all right?" Bobby asked and Jack put his arm around her and she immediately felt better.

"Yeah, he's not gonna disturb us anymore"

"You're bleeding" Jack noticed and when she touched her neck where Fowler touched her with his knife, she notice a few drops of blood on her fingers.

"I'm alright, it's just a scratch" she didn't want Jack to freak out but she appreciated when he squeezed her hand.

"So what's going on?" she asked.

"Jerry took the money and the picked him up right on time. Sweet is already there. Now we just need to follow GPS and listen to what these shitheads have to say" Bobby turned the volume up and she could hear Jerry's voice.

"_Come on, man. We gonna do business, or what?"_

A moment of silence.

"_Right, down to business. What were the terms again?"_

"_My brothers said I was naive. That you would shoot me and just take the money" _ Jerry hesitated "_But I just buried my mama and I think that payment's enough"_

"_You been doing a lot of thinking, boy"_

"_Yeah, my mama raised me to be a thinking man. So me and my brothers, we came up with a whole new proposal" _they heard some steps in the background and guessed that everybody surrounded Victor "_Check it out. Instead of giving you the money, we decided we'd give it to these mistreated workers you got standing behind you"_

"What's that?" she heard Jack and look out the window.

"It's a..." Angel hesitated "... lake"

That's when Liz realized with horror that they were driving on a frozen lake covered with a thick layer of snow, towards a black dot in the middle of it that she guesses was the people they just heard.

"_Pistol" _they heard through the speaker "_Evan! I said pistol!"_

Silence.

"_It's cold out here when you by yourself, ain't it?" _ now it was Jerry talking.

"_So what now?" _Sweet laughed "_You gonna kill the hand that's been feeding you? I told Fowler all about this meeting! You kill me, you all go down!"_

Short silence broken by Jerry's steady voice.

"_He ain't coming"_

"_So who's gonna do it? Who's gonna take on the champ? Who's the man here?!" _Sweet still sounded pretty confident.

That's when he noticed the approaching car and a dead silence fell.

One minute later, Bobby, Jack and Liz got out of the car and slowly walked up to them.

"Is this who I think it is?" Sweet snorted "Is this what you all been waiting for? Bobby Mercer" he grinned and took his jacket off "Back in town"

Bobby took his jacket off, too and took a step closer.

"You're gonna be the one, Bobby?" Sweet laughed "What you got?"

Jack was standing with Liz, his arm protectively around her waist, watching Sweet coming up to Bobby and punching him twice in his face, with each step coming closer to a hole in the ice.

"Get your ass up!"

All the men chanting around, Bobby got onto his feet and started to punch Victor, so that in a second they were wrestling down in the snow. Finally Bobby elbowed him hard and started to punch Sweet's face again. Once Sweet got up and tried to leave the circle, his men caught him in time and pushed him back towards Bobby, who was ready to beat the shit out of him. After one final blow, Sweet was lying on the ground barely moving.

Bobby stood straight breathing heavily.

"Get him in the hole"

The men didn't need him repeat it, so four of them picked Sweet up and threw him into the freezing water.

"So what we gonna do about the police?" Liz asked Booby when he stood by her.

"Police?" he asked amused "Cops love the Mercers, Lizzie"

***

She's been waiting with Sofi and Camille, Jerry's wife, at the police station for almost two hours and apparently the police wanted to get every detail of what had happened out of all the brothers. Somebody had to be kept accountable for Sweet's disappearance so the Mercers made her leave and then let the cops arrest them.

Not that they told them anything.

"You arrested him and he didn't do anything" Sofi was shouting at the guy behind the counter.

"His name is Jeremiah Mercer and I wanna see him now!" Camille was backing her up when suddenly Jerry flew through one of the office's doors and landed on the wall, his wife already kneeling by him and shouting "Don't push him like that!"

Liz was still standing by the counter when Angel came out and suddenly disappeared behind Sofi's pink fur.

"Oh baby! Are you OK? They bought it baby, they bought it!"

That's when Jack came out and walked up to her.

"Let me see" she extended her hand and pulled him close to her "Come here".

"I'm alright, it's just a boo-boo" he was trying to keep her away from his face but quickly succumbed.

"It's not a boo-boo! Somebody put a fist in your eye!" she was trying to get a closer look "Oh my God, you're bleeding" she was holding his face gently.

"You know I can take a punch" he smiled teasingly and kissed her.

"Hey, man, where's Bobby?" Angel asked right when they heard the fourth brother's voice.

"Let me catch you on the street without that badge, I'll smack that smirk off your face!"  
"I'm gonna smack you, Bobby" Camille looked at him when he appeared walking towards them down the corridor "I told you not to let Jerry get hurt"  
"He's breathing. You all right, Jackie?" Bobby asked and Jack just nodded without letting Liz from his embrace.

"Let's go home"

***

They were outside standing in the snow and fixing the house after the shooting. Some kids were playing hockey on the icy road; Bobby was doing some woodwork and Jerry was working with cement while Jack and Angel were repairing the windows and the front door. Liz and Sofi were sitting on the front stairs chatting when Camille showed up.

"Okay, no more work for today"  
"That's right" Liz backed her up "Let's go into the house, wash your hands, boys"

"Dang, it's time to eat" Jack encircled her waist and pushed her close to him teasing her "I'm starving".

The red ball that the kids were playing with hit Bobby in the back of his leg and disappeared in the snow.

Bobby turned around and picked it up.

"Here you go" he handed it to one of the boys.

"Evelyn isn't coming back, is she?" another boy asked hesitantly.

"No, she's not coming back" Bobby looked at him.

"Because she's dead, huh?"

"Yeah. It's because she's dead" Bobby looked sad while saying this "You guys have fun, all right? No rough stuff"

The kids went back to playing and Bobby wanted to go back to his work when Liz looked at him.

"Hey Bobby, you coming in?" she asked over Jack's arm and smiled when Bobby nodded "By the way, you gonna stick around a little while this time?"

"I'm thinking about it, Liz" he looked at her gratefully "I'm thinking about it"

After he disappeared inside the house, Liz looked at Jack.

"I'm so happy I'm here with you" she whispered and looked into his eyes.

She finally understood that there is always hope for a better tomorrow, all you have to do is to reach out and let it sink in.

"Oh, don't worry" he smiled playfully "I'm not going anywhere this time"

THE END


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